


Unholy Revelations of the Plague Kind

by MissAtropine



Series: The Diabolic Disobedience Department (Vol.1) [4]
Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Aemelia Vial (OC), Alchemy, Alternate Canon, Arcades, Blood and Gore, Chemistry, Conniving Copia, Dark Comedy, Dark Copia, Demons, Drama, Familiars, Flirty Copia, Gen, Horror, Hot Weather, Monster Hunters, Monsters, Nekid (OC), Other, Paranormal Investigators, Plague, Rats, References to Drugs, Rituals, Slow Burn, Smoking, Summer, Sunglasses, Supernatural Elements, Swearing, The D.D.D, Trauma, Tutoring, Witchcraft, Witches, irreverent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:20:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 52,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25109116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissAtropine/pseuds/MissAtropine
Summary: Dearest Cardinal,I fear in such dark times that you are my last, and impurest chance of hope. I fear a disease has gripped every inch of this town and that I am surely next to befall such sickness. If the disease does not reach me first, the frenzied townspeople surely will. I have relied on the kindness of the Ministry before, and I hope with my all heart I can rely on the Ministry now that I am in grave danger.- Part Four of Six, an unusual retelling of the last year of Era 4.
Series: The Diabolic Disobedience Department (Vol.1) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682716
Kudos: 4





	1. Heat with a side of Bitterness

**Author's Note:**

> After 2 months, part 4 has finally arrived.
> 
> If you haven't read any of the other parts, I would highly recommend checking out the rest of this series first... as a lot of this may not make sense :)
> 
> To anyone still here reading, thank you so much for getting this far. This was just a little silly idea I had and I really didn't think the story would ever reach this point, but here we are. I would love to know your thoughts on this part.
> 
> Thank you to my significant other for listening to my rants and complaints over this particular story, and of course, feeding my creativity and keeping me grounded :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy the read - hopefully see you in the next instalment soon... there's still a lot more on the horizon :)

Intense heat was never something that had been considered inside the old Ministry complex. The calculated light of the sun invaded the internal hallways, blasting through any small crack of window glass, turning each corridor into a religious spectacle of sun rays... and a stone-walled _sauna._ It didn't differ so much in the newer complex either... most Siblings of Sin opted to stay inside, idly lounging about their dormitories as the air-conditioning units struggled to keep up with demand, the machinery shuddering loudly in protest as it filled their rooms with a pathetic huff of chilled air. Nevertheless, the small bursts of air from the cooling system were at least _something_ of use compared to the _nothing_ in the old complex... 

Now that summer had rolled in, and time had passed abnormally fast since the spring, it would be suffice to think that Cardinal Copia would tend to relax a little more and _enjoy_ the summer months... but no such thing happened. His work-pile stacked ever-taller and the temperature forced him to amend his favoured attire - he cared very much for appearances habitually but the heat was so fierce that he had to momentarily abandon his love for elaborate tuxedos.

On one particular day in mid-June, the heat of summer began to reach a stifling peak and it was really starting to grate on everyone within the walls of the Ministry.

Copia was one of the many who was struggling, suffering alone in his office, at the mercy of the suffocating heat wave. He was sat in an unnatural position - his legs were up, sprawled over the flat surface of his desk, the rest of his body slouching down to the base of his armchair. His glossy chestnut hair was drenched with sweat, which was also glistening over his brow and moustache, small drips trickling down the sides of his face. He huffed out in protest, fanning himself with a scrunched up - and presumably _important_ \- document. He'd opened every possible window in the small office yet it didn't appear to have a scrap of difference...

He usually spent most of the year covered in layers as he was a little more susceptible to the cold but he felt like he was _frying_ now that the true Italian summer had hit. He had actually enjoyed the moderately warm days so far but this particular day was _fetid,_ even for a cold blooded individual like himself.

He adorned one of his usual high-neck black shirts but had left the top buttons loose, the crease-less arms folded up tightly to the tops of his elbows. A black leather belt tucked his waist in neatly and he'd prised up the bottoms of his usual slim suit trousers, revealing the skin of his pale ankles to the world. The thin canvas boat shoes on his feet, however, were an unexpected addition - but to no surprise, they were black to match his outfit. Somehow he still managed to look effortlessly smart and important even though he was completely _melting._

He continued to fan himself with the crumpled paperwork, closing his eyes in the hopes that a waft of breeze would miraculously manifest. Believing he had somehow conjured just that, he hummed with content as a slight movement of air wafted his way from the location of his open door. As the draft continued, he shuffled side-to-side, finding the most comfortable position to slouch in. 

Before long, timid, subdued footsteps contributed to the source of the welcomed draft and Copia's spine stiffened at the sound. He prised his eyelids open with great effort as the black paint over his skin was starting to feel heavy. His mismatched eyes were immediately drawn to the quiet stranger, who was standing at the opposite side of the bureau, their fair fawn hands clutching a wide cardboard box nervously to their chest.

The woman had stark light russet eyes and little sprigs of black hair peeping out from an opal wimple covering her head and shoulders. The sight of the nun still wearing every layer of her habit made Copia feel even more aware of the heat than before - he raised up his left arm to wipe a trail of sweat from one side of his face with the back of his forearm.

"This arrived not too long ago, your Dark Excellency." she spoke factually, her voice smooth and more direct than he had anticipated. "I thought it best that I brought it to you."

He murmured something incoherent and then grumbled as he shuffled forcibly to sit upright in his seat, wincing slightly as he peeled his back away from the leather of the chair.

"Oh... oh _good!"_ he exclaimed with feigned enthusiasm as she carefully placed the parcel onto the paper-explosion over the desk. "That is most welcome, _eh..._ Sister... ?"

"Sister _Sulinus,_ your Dark Excellency." the sister announced with an overly proud sense of achievement.

 _"Good, good..."_ he mumbled quietly, already sliding the brown box towards him, papers flying about when his gloved hands began to scrap at the tabs to prise the parcel open.

The sister stood patiently, peering towards him with a slight hopefulness, crossing her hands modestly over her stomach. He continued to open his package but soon grew tired and slid something from his left sleeve - a sturdy serpent-handled letter opener, which he used to swiftly slash through the thick beige parcel tape.

Once the largest tabs were freed, he concealed the letter-opener back into its rightful place, tucking it up the forearm of his sleeve. He paused his action and flicked his eyes towards the sister, slightly uncomfortable with the way she was stood observing him... it was like she was _waiting_ for him to say something, not that he understood what she was expecting of him.

"May I help with _anything else,_ Cardinal?" Sister Sulinus asked lowly, her light brown eyes leaving strange flickering hints that he didn't quite grasp. 

_"Eh..._ no, no... be on your way ... _ahm..._ you must leave this stifling office, ah? Find somewhere cool to inhabit." Copia insisted lightly, waving a gloved hand towards her. He didn't want her doting on him, or _staring_ at him so intensely as he tried to cope with the insufferable summer heat. 

Regardless of his wishes, the sister stayed put, awaiting the reveal of whatever was inside that cardboard box. Copia seemed oblivious to the fact she hadn't abided his words, and carried on unpacking the items inside, tossing aside various haggered bits of cardboard - unable to resist popping a few pockets of air as he threw a lengthy sheet of bubble-wrap behind him.

To neither the sister or Copia's knowledge, yet another person had entered his office unannounced - the soles of their rubber converse were muffled before rustling to a brash stop, black eyes assessing the scene of the office before them. 

Aemelia Vial _loathed_ intruding on situations, but she knew it would seem awkward if she backed out of the room now, so she kept quiet and hung back slightly. She averted her eyes from them like she had never blatantly intruded and instead, leaned back to lightly knock her knuckles against the wood of the door-frame... an unusual sound to hear in the cardinal's office as he didn't wish for such formality - the polite action immediately caused Copia to pause in bewilderment.

Before he could question the source of the unexpected sound, his eyes settled over Sister Sulinus, who was still calmly waiting, her caramel eyes studying his every move. Her body language was hardly subtle as it was even clear to Copia that she was itching to know the contents of the box she had brought him. 

_"Ah..._ Sister... _eh... "_ he trailed off uncomfortably, very much stuck on the name he had learnt less than two minutes ago. "Sister... you are still _here?_ I did not realise, you were as quiet as a mouse."

Sister Sulinus stayed still but narrowed her eyes at him, like she was somehow disappointed in him. He swallowed nervously as he met her steely gaze, something about her expression making him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

"You know..." he began to suggest, placing his gloved-palms flat on the desk to steady himself from shaking under her tense gaze. "... perhaps there is something you could do for me... _ahm..._ would you kindly ask the cafeteria if they have any _ice cubes?_ I would greatly appreciate it if you brought some for me, as quickly as you could."

"Oh, _of course,_ your Dark Excellency!" she cried out gladly after he'd only just finished his words. She curtseyed before she obediently spun around, her eyes latching onto the sight of Miss Vial, who was waiting patiently for their interaction to end. Instantly, the sister's eyes shot away like she had seen something _disgusting_ and she pushed by the alchemist's shoulder, scurrying off to fulfil a task she had been set by the most prestigious cardinal in all of the Ministry.

Copia set to removing the ridiculous amount of packaging from his delivery box, glad the office was absent of Sister Sulinus' hawk-eyes but unaware of his colleague's presence entirely. Miss Vial took a few steps towards the bureau, her arms crossed over the front of her black waistcoat, obscuring the colourful variety of spilled liquids and powders clinging to the fibres of the material. 

"Her crush on you couldn't have been more _obvious."_ she sternly announced, the right side of her mouth lifting up into an amused smirk.

"Her _what?!"_ he yelled out in surprise, his eyes wide as he raised his head to face her - she wasn't sure whether it was her observation that had shocked him... or the fact he had been completely oblivious to her existence.

"You didn't see her _leering_ at you? Or hear the assertive streak in her voice when she received an _exclusive_ task from you?" she asked flatly, her dark irises eyeing the deep cardboard box, which Cardinal had his arms buried in.

 _"Yeesh,_ I have no idea what you are talking about, Miss Vial." he replied honestly, with quite a degree of annoyance in his voice. "Sister - _whatever-her-name-was_ \- is kindly helping me out. She delivered this parcel to me."

"Fuckin' hell, Copia." Aemelia gasped out, like she had just received a nasty shock that mildly infuriated her. "You could've at least told me that you had _Prime."_

"Prime? What the fuck is _Prime?!"_ he questioned in puzzlement, standing upright to scowl at her in confusion as his gloves clutched at the top edges of the parcel.

"What's in there anyway? Looks like there's more _packaging_ than content..." she muttered, dropping her arms away from her front to place her hands on her hips.

"It is a fan that disperses mist." he declared lightly, his voice booming out like it was some kind of introduction to a life-changing new invention. "I heard from our clairvoyant that the heatwave was on the horizon... so I decided to order one a lil' while ago, just in case."

"Hang on... there's a dedicated Ministry _clairvoyant?"_ she asked with blatant curiosity, narrowing her eyes in suspicion as she reached one of her hands into her waistcoat, clearly fishing for her packet of smokes.

"Yes..." he hissed out with minor frustration, pausing with a deflated sigh. "I do not know why, but Papa insists on the position being filled. By all means, the current one - she is quite _accurate_ most of the time with her predictions but... I think she may just have a secret _WiFi_ connection, you know?"

Aemelia frowned deeply in thought and slotted a fresh cigarette between her lips, watching in bored fascination as he pulled more strips of pointless cardboard and plastic from the insides of the box.

"More like _you_ do." she replied playfully, her black eyes filled with mirth as the _mess_ of his office seemed to grow _messier_ and _messier_ by the second due to his actions. "How'd you order _Prime_ without internet?"

 _"Premonition,_ of course." he answered quickly with a small smile, finally picking off the last thin plastic bag that covered the mist-dispenser. "It is the back door into most companies, Lucifer has His fingers in _many_ corporate pies, ah?"

She snickered at his honest answer but nodded, raising her palms towards him in a shrug of amused surprise.

"How are you coping with the heatwave, Miss Vial? It is quite a _scorch - "_ he cut off completely when his eyes raised to trail down the whole sight of her. He should have carried on and ignored how she had caught him off-guard, but his mind fled from his original words. He had expected the sight of her in the habitual dishevelled shirt, tie and waistcoat, but the black denim shorts - with _fishnet tights_ to match - had certainly awakened a part of his brain he very much hoped would head back to sleep soon.

 _" - er."_ he finished highly, his voice peaking from sheer surprise and perhaps a slither of arousal. His lips parted in hungry amazement as she leaned down to rest her elbows on the bureau, her black eyes framed with a scowl as she focused on the rim of his parcel. 

He blindly fished out the medium-sized contraption, his eyes fixated on her even as he rested the new item over the free space of his desk. She peered into the rest of the box, frowning in interest at the other bits and pieces he must have ordered. The items were so strange that she didn't really want to ask what he intended to use them for - what could he want with a _miniature swing-ball_ set, a tiny hammock and _tissue-sized blanket?_ She considered they were perhaps for some _pet_ of his that she didn't know about, and in all honesty, it was something plausible enough to be accepted as the truth. She _believed_ what seemed plausible but she wasn't going to ask any questions.

"It certainly _is_ a hot one." she finally agreed in a mindless tone, hoping the small talk would encourage him to stop acting so unusual as he was still entranced by the sight of her - she presumed it was probably because she was wearing something a little different.

 _"What?_ Oh... _yes, yes..._ you certainly are..." he murmured and dropped his attention from her to slip off his leather gloves. He began to untangle the fan's plug from its stem with his bare hands, each one shaking tremendously due to her presence. She glared at him, wondering if she had heard him right but he cleared his throat and continued.

"How have your summer classes been coming along?" Copia asked, encouraging that the subject changed before both of them had to acknowledge what he had blatantly admitted. That being said, he did actually very much care to know her answer to his question.

"Not great." she confessed with a sigh, raising her brows in the briefest expression of concern as the unlit cigarette rolled to one side of her mouth and hung there like a tooth-pick. "Unfortunately I can't teach _feelings,_ Cardinal. I can teach variables but it's highly unlikely to occur without a potent catalyst. The _catalyst_ being the _feeling_ of what you require."

"Well... of course. It is like... the _making of love,_ no?" he pondered in an understanding tone, his voice no longer heightened due to how honest and confident he was now that the subject had shifted. "You can try the one spot and play by ear but... if you feel and _explore_ the sensuality of each movement, each little _crevice_ of the body - you feel nothing but the truth of human emotion, and of course... it is a _much_ more _desirable_ outcome for _both_ variables at the end."

"Not the metaphor I would have gone for but... yes, exactly that, Cardinal." she agreed reluctantly, nodding as she blinked at him. He smirked to himself as he yanked the fan's wire towards him and swung around, readying himself to lower down and push the plug into the nearest socket.

"I wouldn't mind trying some time." he murmured quietly, using the heel of his palm to hammer the plug into place, his knees effortlessly dealing with his sudden crouched stance.

"I wouldn't let you near that alchemy station if it was your _dying wish."_ Aemelia snapped, which took him by surprise as he hadn't anticipated her hearing exactly what he had said. He no longer saw the point in trying to change the subject.

"I was not talking about the _alchemy,_ Miss Vial." Copia said simply, like he was merely stating a fact as he hopped up to his feet and swivelled around to face her. She frowned in confusion, narrowing her eyes at his blatant flirtatious confession, but he acted like he had never said a thing, resuming the set-up of his mist-dispenser.

"So... _ehh..._ what brings you here, Aemelia?"

"I was hoping your office would be cooler, but I couldn't have been more wrong." she disclosed, adjusting the position of her black tie to ensure it was a bit more centred.

"Yes, there is no ventilation in here... or _anywhere_ in this old building, I am afraid." he countered bitterly, tilting the fan-head so that it faced slightly upwards. "And _we_ are the few who have to live with it. But _Papa?_ Oh, he installs _air conditioning_ for his new building and walks about the place in his fucking _Speedos,_ but of course, he keeps that pathetic _mitre_ on his head. Trust me, I am _glad_ to be _suffering_ in such heat - so I do not have to see him flashing his crumpled skin about the air conditioned hallways..."

"You're upset..." she muttered, backing away from the bureau slightly with a roll of her eyes.

 _"Yes! Of course_ I am upset, Aemelia... I... I cannot live with this _heat_ anymore. Or these... _fucking scriptures._ The man takes me for a complete joke." he admitted sadly, shielding his eyes with one of his bare hands.

"A cold shower may help." she offered in a kinder tone, crossing her arms over her chest again. "In fact, it would probably help you a lot of the time..."

_"I have tried that..."_

"A walk outside?"

"I will burn to a _crisp."_ he shot back with a sigh, dropping his hand away from his face to shake his head as he tried to fathom the current situation. "I am used to the hot summers here, Miss Vial, the Ministry has been my home from home over the years but... this temperature is unlike _anything_ I have encountered." 

"Are you... suggesting that this would fall under _our department?"_ she asked with a sense of intrigue. "After all, as much as we investigate disobeyers of your deity, unusual patterned behaviours would fall under our interests too..."

"I think so. I would happily place a bet on it. You do not think it has... to do with the _fanged fiends_ in the _undercroft?"_ he finished in a whisper, the quiet volume of his voice clearly inferring he did not trust the walls of his own church yet again.

"I highly doubt it." she assured, sensing he was suddenly on edge at the thought of another vampiric threat. "They opt to hibernate in the height of summer. Don't you worry, I've been monitoring them. I'm still gathering the materials so that I will be able to face them, though that may take me some time."

"Mm, you do as you must, Aemelia." he replied a little louder, nodding his head but there was still the gleam of uncertainty in his eyes. "I will wait for the sister to return with the ice and then we can decide where we go from there, ah?"

She nodded and he dropped his attention to the floor, feeling that they had somehow arrived at a lull in the conversation. He briefly glanced up towards her again and she was gesturing the fresh cigarette towards him, like she was asking for permission. He dropped his gaze again but motioned an indifferent hand towards her, the sound of a match-striking telling him all he needed to know.

Silence fell between them as the faint smell of tobacco smoke drifted up towards the ceiling, the subdued sound of her inhaling and exhaling soothing the awkwardness brewing between them. Now that she had been left to her thoughts, a perplexed and almost concerned expression fell across her features, though the source of her feelings were a mystery.

"This... is a little off-topic but... you... you really suit... _less suit,_ Miss Vial." he professed honestly, not daring to look up at her as he hated the fact he had been the one to break the silence with a ridiculous confession.

She blinked out of her deep, worrisome thoughts. Luckily, it seemed she hadn't really understood or even heard what he had said this time and merely replied to him with an empty, _"Sorry, what?"_

Before he raised his head to repeat what he had said, Sister Sulinus finally returned. She bustled in with purpose, grasping a large bag of frozen ice-cubes between her hands. As she approached the bureau, she abruptly - and _purposely_ \- paused to wait for Miss Vial to move out of the way. With a brief glance over her shoulder, Aemelia obliged, holding up her hands in surrender as she shuffled aside. The sister shot a snide look towards the alchemist, eyeing the lit cigarette between her lips.

"Your ice cubes, Cardinal." the sister announced expectantly, carefully placing the bag over his desk. She was biting her lip over-dramatically, so much so that Cardinal couldn't miss it.

"Oh, sister, do not... do that... it... it is not so good for you. You will dry your skin and split your lip." Copia pointed out, knitting his eyebrows together with concern.

"I am sorry, your Dark Excellency." the sister said worriedly, bowing her head so that she no longer had to face his other-worldly eyes."I... I just find you so _enticing - "_

Aemelia snorted out in amusement, immediately realising how rude it was and instead tipped her head back, perching her lit cigarette between her fingers so that she could howl out soundless cackles of laughter. She was dying to add to the conversation but her amusement wasn't allowing her to do so.

"That is... _understandable,_ sister, but... you really _must_ leave now." he said with an air of authority, his tone changing from easy going to sincere fairly quickly. "Miss Vial and I have important work to discuss that does not concern you. But... thank you for fetching the ice, I will make sure a reward is sent to your room later on."

The sister was quite upset by his rejection, visibly so, but that didn't appear to phase the cardinal. Miss Vial's laughter had faded away sometime ago as she was taken aback at how sternly he had shut down the sister's eagerness. Sister Sulinus politely curtsied before fleeing the room entirely, leaving Copia to huff out in irritation as he grabbed hold of the limp bag of frozen ice-cubes. 

Aemelia watched quietly, puffing away on her cigarette as he placed the top of the bag inside his mouth and tore the seam in two with his teeth, spitting out the little remnants of plastic across the room. He proceeded to tip out a couple of the cubes onto a small plastic palette which was attached to the rear of the desk-fan. He carelessly discarded the bag of ice over the bureau, rushing so that he could finally flick on the switch. Immediately, as soon as the mist-dispenser began to slowly rotate left to right, he seemed more at ease. He reached towards the bag of ice again and shoved a hand inside, snatching hold of a few more cubes before he yanked his hand back out, shoving them into his mouth.

He closed his mouth tightly and winced from the sharp cold hitting his tongue, which was forcefully pushing about the blocks of ice around his mouth, the sound of clattering muffled behind the walls of his cheeks.

Aemelia was slightly uncomfortable with how he was behaving but decided to ignore him - after all, heat was known to make people act in mysterious ways. Instead of saying anything she poised her cigarette between her lips and studied his new gadget with interest, surprised at how effective it was.

Now that Cardinal found he had more room inside his mouth due a few of the cubes melting, he decided to continue their conversation.

"Arwe wew to invedigage Miff Fial?" he mumbled out incoherently, causing her to roll her eyes and cross her arms over her chest.

"I don't think there is any need to investigate, no ... would you say that it's expected for the Ministry to experience a lot of hauntings in summer?" she inquired, hoping to quickly change the subject and leave to let him cool down from his awkward mood. He shrugged, collecting together his pair of leather gloves so that he could slide them onto each of his hands with ease.

"How about _malevolent_ hauntings? The kind where in any other circumstance these energies would be a threat but... _here_ they are _welcomed..."_

He nodded eagerly and gulped down the last cold remnants of the melted cubes, establishing his relief by letting out a satisfied sigh.

"Yes, Miss Vial." Copia voiced with a sudden spurt of enthusiasm. "Even though we are unaware of the dark forces, their presence is _certainly_ heightened in the summer months. They must thrive on the heat, perhaps it reminds them of their birthplace, _heh."_

"But they could be _flocking_ here - that would account for the rise in the Ministry's temperature. If they _are,_ they're probably seeking solace here, but why? Surely they must fear something?"

"Lucifer's forces _frightened?_ I do not think so, Miss Vial. Such a thing is unheard of." he chuckled out in amused disbelief, shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

"Yet extraordinary things occur all the time, Copia. How else would change ever come about?"

Her strangely philosophical response took him by surprise and he seemed speechless for a moment, just staring at her as he deeply considered her words. He knew deep down, that she was utterly right, though his church would have snubbed him for even agreeing with such a theory.

"Something is certainly on its way, Miss Vial." he agreed reluctantly, their eyes meeting in shared concern. "If our dark forces are retreating then we can only expect _something_ to arise out of the grey. I only hope that the spirits settle soon, or this heat will become _unbearable."_


	2. It Rears Its Head

Their feeling of foreboding was understood a few days later. 

The overwhelming heat continued to dominate the Ministry's interior, the humidity reigning over moods and decisions, adornments and breaths. One occupant of the Ministry, who had actually grown _frustrated_ with the sticky temperature, was Copia, who had decided on wearing his cassock for at least a bit of _normality_ \- it was interesting how he still opted to wear the light-weight boat shoes. Conveniently, the fabric of his black cassock hid them perfectly well, so goodness knows what else he was - _or was not_ \- adorning beneath his vestments. 

His desperate clutch at the attractive idea of routine was _futile,_ however. His day had started off mundane - _like any other_ \- and the feel of his cardinal robes eased his mind as he picked through the usual mound of ridiculous mail he received. Most letters were filled with trivial worries or _Lucifer-forbid,_ greed-fuelled wishes. It was like they expected him to put in a good word with the Old One or click his fingers and grant them some obscene living _fantasy._ He would simply toss those letters aside, or if he was feeling riled up enough, lightly growl and scrunch them up before discarding them somewhere over his shoulder.

He was a _cardinal,_ not some pathetic _genie._ He never understood why so many worshippers wrote to him in such a way - he was _certain_ that none of the Emeritus brothers _ever_ got such mail. In fact, he knew most of them had often received much more interesting, _racier_ letters containing the most _delightful_ of offers... 

He threw another lengthy, well-scribed letter aside, wondering where the people _thirsting_ for him were. Sure, he probably wouldn't take them up on their desires, but... it would certainly comfort him to know that he was seen _somewhat_ similar to the powerful bloodline Nihil always sung praises and chastised him about. He sighed deeply and unravelled the next piece of parchment, his tired eyes skimming over the words - though he read each letter slowly, the meanings of the words didn't appear to reach his brain and he rolled his eyes, already giving up by carelessly chucking it onto the floor behind him.

Copia had yearned for routine, yet still wished for some kind of diversity within his duties. Even if it was the slightest difference - like a letter that wasn't the ramblings of a self-centred freeloader, or the surprise of having a little too much sugar in his coffee - at least _something_ different to keep himself on his toes.

Reluctantly, he readjusted his silver-framed reading glasses and resumed his letter reading, sliding out a single envelope from the bottom of the pile. The tower of paper above had flattened it so much that it almost looked like it had been ironed. His eyes traced over the neat flow of writing on the top - it was addressed to him but the black ink had smudged, like the sender had been in some kind of rush - or perhaps they had been leaning on the fresh ink without realising. Either way, the slight imperfection and untidiness intrigued him.

Picking up his serpent-handled letter opener, he smoothly applied one clean incision through the seal of the envelope. He carefully placed his utensil back in its previous position and slid out the folded letter, soon using the tips of his gloved-fingers to flip it open. The paper wavered slightly as his hands clutched around the sharp sides, his expression one of boredom due to his tainted expectations of trivial problems being expressed to him...

But as soon as he began to read the first line, his expression dropped entirely. His eyes quickly jumped from word to word like he could sense the desperation in the way each letter had been scribed - he couldn't remember ever reading a piece of mail so fast. His slouched position soon morphed into one of alert as he backed away to lean against the cushion of his leather arm-chair, his shoulders tensing as his eyes fixed onto the parchment before him. 

With every sentence, the words were becoming more erratically written. For some, it would have been indistinguishable, but to him, he could read it as plain as day. He could almost feel the sense of dread emanating from every scribbled letter and the situation that the worshipper was describing made his throat tighten, the leather gloves creaking around the parchment in order to tighten into fists. 

Though he wasn't frightened like they were, he found himself welling up with a purpose, a _duty_ to ensure this person was safe. A duty to ensure that what they were describing was put to a _stop_ immediately. The sentences grew shorter and shorter, speaking of harrowing events that weren't fully fathomable, of a town stricken with something that Copia should have known about - _had he ignored something?_ Had he been sat there in his own monotony when there had been something that had fallen under his purview? How hadn't he known?

The very notion of him neglecting a situation as dire as what was being told through the scribbles of a terrified woman, made his heart wrench with guilt. He couldn't bear to sit and sulk about his office any longer...

Upon reaching the end of the sender's letter, which had been signed off with a scrawled _"Marie",_ he immediately dropped the letter and shot up out of his seat, kicking the legs of the bureau in frustration - of course, that hurt quite a bit, considering he wasn't wearing his usual footwear and he let out a strained _"Fanculo!"_ of protest. Eventually he decided to push himself away from the cramped space of his desk. 

He bolted from his office as fast as he possibly could without sprinting, the words from Marie's letter suspended in his mind, urging him to act, urging him to remember his duty and the importance of his position...

It wasn't long until he arrived outside his destination, his breathing staggered due to how much he had been rushing. He took a brief second to catch his breath and he leaned forwards, resting his hands over his thighs as he gathered himself. It was strange how he had fled to the apothecary like it was _second nature_ \- although Copia hadn't become _accustomed_ to trouble, his instinct to seek help from Miss Vial was practically innate to him. He no longer had to question himself over whether she would assist him. He had complete faith in her, as a reliable colleague, and a dear friend.

As he straightened himself and turned towards the apothecary's door, the muffled sounds from inside caused him to pause his movements. Sounds of the crackling fire pit and simmering pots were backed by the thumping drums and melodic guitars of _The Mission's Deliverance,_ the small clinks of test tubes and various metallic equipment only further confirming Aemelia Vial's presence. 

Copia loathed interrupting her when she was busy but the news he had received in that unusual letter was prompting him to take urgent action. He politely, but firmly knocked on the overly dry wooden door - despite its thick insulation it was surprisingly terrible at dampening down the sounds from inside. Some would complain but he was rather enjoying the noise as it was the loud proof of her existence.

After waiting patiently for a couple of seconds, he knew that she wouldn't be able to hear him over the volume of her music so he entered of his own accord, the poignant stench of smoke and boiled nettles hitting him like a scent-kick to his face, a strong, musty burst of heated air an unpleasant aftertaste. He turned to carefully close the door and as he faced away, his eyes rested on the sight of Aemelia, who was busy at work, stirring a small pot over the small fire pit with a wooden spoon. Her other hand was wrapped around a jar filled with a purple and obsidian clump which was quickly flowing about in an attempt to push the corked lid off of the glass jar. A lit cigarette hung from the left side of her mouth as she concentrated and popped up the lid of the jar, coaxing out the entity within to mix it into the hot bubbling liquid she had made.

It did as it was directed and wafted down into the charcoal coloured potion, giving it a pulsing purple hue. She carefully closed the emptied jar and dropped it onto the stone table, giving the potion she was making a commanding stir. She lifted her gaze briefly and she caught a glimpse of the cardinal's black cassock, which made her return her attention to the task at hand. She adorned a pinstriped waistcoat that he hadn't seen before, though she still sported the usual black tie and white shirt, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows.

"Can I _help?!"_ she yelled over the music, her voice laced with annoyance which took him by surprise. He cleared his throat and motioned towards her record player, which she immediately lifted her head at - she wore an expression like he'd offended her but she paused her work and walked over to it. His shoulders tensed as she brought the volume up higher, his eyes widening as he felt the music rattle his temples. She let out a wicked laugh and brought the volume down until it was bearable in the background.

"Sorry, Cardinal, I couldn't resist."

He dropped his surprise and chuckled quietly at her mischief, despite still being inwardly surprised at her antics. The fact she was in a good mood made the weight of the letter he had received much more heavy, which caused his heart to ache from how truly awful he felt.

"Your presence here clearly means something's up?" she asked, though she could have merely said it as a statement. "You being here before the tail-end of the afternoon can't mean anything _good..."_

"Unfortunately so, Miss Vial." he spoke with a sad strain to his vocal chords and damp eyes like he was holding back tears - his words may have been spilling freely, but his tears certainly weren't following suit. "The twentieth year in every century is sure to bring plagues, and I am in _charge_ of observing said evils. At a push I often visit plague-stricken places. And... to be _truthful,_ Aemelia, it is quite common that I have _revelled_ in the remnants of an aftermath." 

She narrowed her eyes in speculation of the words he was about to say but she didn't utter a sound. He sighed, and took a few steps forward, steadying himself by placing his gloved-palms over the edge of the alchemy station.

"I have kept good track of _most_ as best I can. _Most_ are behaving as I expected yet there is one that has manifested unlike any other."

She raised her eyes to his in confusion, his muddy eye glossy with concern whereas the opal one shone with sheer fortitude. She could tell he was undeniably anxious and she kept quiet, allowing him time to formulate his words without interruption. His outburst about such a topic intrigued her, but she realised that there had to be more to it than a sudden urge to vent about work, or the tyrannous authority that Papa Nihil held over him. 

"In fact, I did not know of such a plague until ten minutes ago." he finally admitted with a wobble in his voice, his grip on the alchemy station growing fiercer. "The _words_ of this poor woman, her words spoke to me out of fear and desperation... a woman who I know to be still _alive,_ Miss Vial. Living in fear of opening her doors to... _Lucifer knows what_ lurking outside. Her world is upside down - she did not deserve this. I... I should have known - "

"If everything you've just said to me is true, why did she bother writing to _you,_ of _all_ the popes and cardinals? And why the Ministry? It's not common knowledge to seek _aid_ from here..."

He furrowed his brow, taking a few seconds of silence as he deeply considered her words. She was right, of course. The satanic Ministry was not universally somewhere that would seem _welcoming_ to an outsider - though in truth, it welcomed _anyone_ with open arms and practised positivity in droves. And of course, their department furthered that positivity by developing resolutions and helped anyone in need, regardless of any discrepancies. These factors weighed on his mind, and in that moment, he realised the department he and Miss Vial had created, had become far more than a boredom-breaker for him... it had become more important to him than he had realised.

_"Almost like she knew your area of expertise..."_ Aemelia mumbled beneath her breath as she threw a cup filled with some kind of liquid onto the fire pit, the sizzling sound of it extinguishing causing Copia to shake his head back into reality.

"This woman has taken refuge under the Ministry's bat-wings _countless_ times before in her life. She seeks our help again now that she is in great suffering." he explained in a sincere tone, staring at Aemelia like he was speaking directly to her soul. "Though I have not met her personally, from how she has written to me, it is clear that she holds her beliefs in Lucifer close to her heart, and trusts that I will bring the peace she very much desires."

Miss Vial nodded in understanding, sensing that their feeling of shared foreboding had some kind of meaning now. They had been awaiting something to manifest, and she just knew this was the first step towards discovering something _crucial..._

"We must help her, Miss Vial. We must find the source of this plague and free her of this dictating fear." he almost pleaded, still holding her gaze with his own. "Please, come with me. Even if this is the last case we ever do... I... I feel this is very, _very_ important. If we could travel across the border to France tonight... to the address she has given, I am sure that would do a lot of good... I apologise for the urgency and I know I'm asking a lot from you to drop everything to do this but - "

"I understand." she said simply, swiping her palms together to rid them of any dust. "Well, you could never get _there_ without _me..._ you're certainly not going to _walk_ to France in a hurry, are you? _Of course_ I'll go with you, Cardinal. This feeling of uneasiness is exactly why our department was formed, don't forget that."

He quickly leaned over the alchemy table with a smile, reaching his arms out to squeeze them around her in a clenching hug, _"Thank you, Miss Vial! Thank you!"_

She frowned at his desperation and awkwardly straightened her back due to his embrace - though she wasn't really used to such an action, she was irritated that he had trapped her arms by her sides so that she couldn't have returned the hug even if she had _wanted_ to... she would have strongly argued that she _hadn't_ wanted to... but that would have been a blatant _lie._

It seemed like the firm hold he had on her had some kind of effect on her, because in a flash, her mind was suddenly fired up with an odd _surge_ \- a _premonition_ of things to come. It was an overwhelming wave of a variety of emotions she could feel on the horizon - many of which were _wrathful_ \- which led to a snippet of a disastrous sequence she felt _extremely_ uncomfortable with seeing as it screened before her mind's eye.

And then, after that split-second premonition, she blinked back to the world around her, feeling his firm hold on her fall away, the feel of the warm ghost of his arms still present to her. She had instantly made some kind of sense of the strange premonition she had received and it spurned her on to make a silent decision. She knew she could not deal with Copia in such a state of concern during a lengthy journey, trapped in the constraints of her car. She knew he would _fidget_ and _complain_ and presumably _burn_ his way through her packets of cigarettes... the last thing she needed was to lose her _own_ sanity too...

"I shall see you by the sedan in thirty minutes." she abruptly instructed in a mindless, eerie tone of voice. It was clear she was still half-away from reality, but Copia seemed oblivious despite the strange, blank expression upon her features.

Without any hesitation, he pivoted on the rubber soles of his boat shoes and darted to the door, pausing as he cracked it open. He shot a look over his left shoulder to glare back at her, lifting his left arm to point briefly towards her. 

"This... this is a _great_ favour to me, you know." he confessed, to which her eyes actually moved to meet his. "Consider me in your _debt."_

Before she had any chance to react to him, he turned and swiftly squeezed through the small gap he had created, the heavy slam of the door echoing about the place.

She was left feeling completely bemused by his behaviour... it could only mean that the plague-related issue must have been _grave._ His nervous demeanour suddenly graced her mind and she let out a heavy breath, returning her attention to the potion she had been making... the premonition of a possible future event causing her to swallow in apprehension.

It was lucky that she had been brewing such a potion, for she realised it would come in _useful_ \- she wanted to ensure there was no chance of her premonition becoming a reality. So, she took a fresh vial and scooped up a generous helping of the violet liquid from the cooling pot, snapping the metal lid closed tightly once it was full. She was _sure_ it would do its job and keep the cardinal _calm..._

Or preferably, _knock him out completely._


	3. It Lingers

When they arrived, it was early evening, and Cardinal directed them to the exact place the letter had spoken of. However, as they had journeyed closer to their destination, his directions weren't exactly needed as their destined location was the only building they could see for quite some distance. It was a detached farm-house, and overwhelmingly French, decorated in an array of colourful hanging flower-baskets which were lightly swinging from its mid-section. Despite its innocent and attractive charm, it still managed to tower over the surrounding fields of golden wheat, an imposing clash of civilisation amongst the freeing sway of the yellow grasses. Thriving clutches of ivy clung to its jenga of grey-stone walls, its presence predominantly wide other than a single clock-tower which stuck up into the orange rays of dusk, casting a long shadow over the ground below. 

Aemelia gently pulled the handbrake after the sedan rolled to a stop over the grit drive, shooting a glance towards Cardinal, who was unusually silent and appeared to be avoiding her gaze. Something was still unsettling him. She was thankful that the calming potion had worked for the majority of their journey but she was sure that the effects must have worn off by now.

His glazed-over eyes focused on the thick stone bricks of the building through the glass of the wind-shield - she understood that he probably felt out of his depth due to the nature of the woman's letter now that they had arrived at their destination. His duties as a cardinal had rarely ever seemed important to him, but she could see that his stare was blankly determined, overruling the hint of uneasiness that he felt.

Silence infected the air between them as they climbed out of each side of the black sedan, their minds mulling over the exact same thing. The place was unusually _peaceful_ and a lot less dangerous than they had imagined. For somewhere that had been described to have problems with disease and rampant insanity, the two were surprised at how pleasantly cool and refreshing the breeze was - how _idyllic_ the sight of the building was - amongst the tall patches of grass and faded cobblestone. Immediately, Miss Vial considered whether they had been _lied_ to...

After locking the vehicle, she slid her car keys back into the innards of her waistcoat, narrowing her eyes as she studied the exterior of the place. Copia gracefully led the way to the front door, which was formed out of splintering oak-wood and coated in peels of lilac gloss paint. His leather gloves creaked as he clutched at the lapels of his black tailcoat, striding with purpose. His consultant closely followed him, but she had her head tipped back to gaze up towards a small slice of a window, located beneath the tower's clock-face - the clock-hands had stopped dead on _six._

Cardinal abruptly paused once he had arrived by the door, stretching a leg up onto a step situated on the same level, which caused him to bend his stance into a slight lunge.

As Aemelia came to a halt a few steps behind him, he cleared his throat and readjusted his collar, confidently rapping his leather-clad knuckles over the door. To her surprise, he smoothly shuffled away to sidle up to her closely, the side of his right arm brushing up beside her. She frowned in confusion, opening her mouth to question his actions - but before she could, the door hurriedly swung open, both sets of their eyes drawn to the person standing in the space revealed in front of them.

They had anticipated seeing someone in _distress,_ someone on the verge of a _mental breakdown,_ yet the image and temperament of the woman that stood before them was neither of those things.

Her hair was jet black with a vivid blue sheen, the tell-tale that the woman had recently dyed her hair. It was tied up into a bun which messily sat on top of her head, her fringe slicing horizontally across the tops of her brows. Her eyes were blots of hazel and held a certain softness to them, the rims caked in lumps of black mascara and peach eyeshadow. Her complexion was pallid, and worryingly so, the glow from her skin almost reminiscent to that of an ethereal corpse.

She beamed a smile to them both and held the door open with a manicured hand, the last few rays of sunlight hitting the long, polished nails, causing them to glitter profusely. She looked at the two of them like she was gazing at two _old friends_ \- rather than welcoming in two _strangers_ that had miraculously arrived out of the blue to erase her fears of the plague-kind, or otherwise _supernatural._

In unison, both Copia and Vial briefly took their eyes away from the woman to glance at one another. Though neither of them were the judgemental type, they couldn't deny how unsettling and unexpected the woman's demeanor was. Their shared glance soon parted ways as they turned their heads towards the woman with the most neutral expressions they could muster, hiding their true feelings in that moment.

Copia felt like a fool for working himself up into a state of apprehension - how could she just stand there with a friendly _grin_ on her face? It made no sense. He had insisted on helping this woman, but already, he could sense something _off_ about the situation they had gotten into.

Vial felt beyond uncomfortable and frankly, _baited._ Already her irritation was starting to build... and so was her craving for another cigarette.

"You must be the cardinal!" the woman cried out in a delighted tone, placing a hand across her heart. "I am _très_ glad that you 'ave come 'ere! I thought my letter would 'ave been lost... or would not get to you! I am _delighted_ to meet you!"

Copia cleared his throat and took a step forwards so that he could stand in a slight lunge over the doorstep once again. He could feel Aemelia's annoyance brewing due to her steely silence, but he saved face, his eyes displaying nothing but patience as he stooped into a half-bow.

"Yes, it is I, Cardinal Copia." he proudly announced, placing a hand over his chest as he stood back up straight. "And... ah, this is my... _colleague,_ Miss Vial."

The woman tittered like she was flattered by Cardinal's manner and nodded her head bashfully, not really seeming to take in anything other than the man stood before her. It was clear that she found his presence captivating.

"You are _Marie,_ no?"

_"Oui, je suis Marie."_ she confirmed in an airy tone, lightly grazing her teeth over her bottom lip before beaming out another smile.

"We are here to help, Marie." Copia explained in a compassionate, soft tone of voice that earned an icy glare from his consultant. "You have nothing to be afraid of now that we are here. We headed straight from the Ministry as soon as we knew of your situation. So, please, allow us to understand more about this... _plague,_ you fear, Marie."

The happiness in her expression faded slightly, though her toothy smile did not, even when she took a few steps away from the doorway.

"Please, come in."

As Marie ushered them to follow her, turning around with her arm holding the door in place, Copia shot Aemelia a wary glance, which she also returned, nodding her head like she was silently agreeing to accept the risk of entering the woman's abode.

He then swiftly turned his head to face his destination, politely wandering inside with a glove flat over his chest, his eyes glinting with curiosity as he crossed the border into Marie's home. She grinned at him gleefully and dropped her grip on the door, eagerly hurrying in front of him to show him around.

Miss Vial followed them at much more nonchalant pace, gritting her teeth in irritation as she crossed the threshold into Marie's living space, the door heavy as she struck out an arm in order to pin it back - if she hadn't, it would have probably slammed in her face.

Once she slipped inside, she let out a huff of discomfort, yanking her arm away which caused the door to forcefully swing backwards, the wood shuddering loudly as it clattered shut.

She took a few steps into the entrance hall, her black eyes shining as she studied the clay tiles that lined the walls, all of which had been painted in a variety of acrylic paints. As she trailed her eyes over each wall, the sound of Marie's chattering emerged again.

"I wish I 'ad known you were coming today... I would 'ave cooked! Would you like a _drink?_ Or maybe a bite to eat? I was not prepared for guests!"

Copia frowned deeply, oblivious to the surroundings around him as he mindlessly followed the woman around.

"No... no, Marie. I just want to know what I can help with."

She paused in the middle of the room, a space that was split into a lengthy living room and an open-plan country kitchen - clearly this particular area was the central heart of the house due to its overwhelming scale. The size of the house around the woman made her seem so small and insignificant, even more so as she tensed up, ensuring that her back was to him.

"My boy is gone." she admitted in a small voice, though she still held a smile, her teeth clenching as hot tears began to sprout from her reddened eyes. "My Remy... I 'ave not seen him for so long. He... wanted to explore the woods, and I let him. He wanted to go and play _outside_ for once, but this one time he does... he does not come back."

Cardinal knitted his eyebrows together and placed a firm hand onto her right shoulder, her body tensing further. Clearly her heightened positivity must have been a way of dealing with her stress and having new visitors must have been a new, exciting way of busying herself.

"But... you will have no chance of finding him tonight." she continued in a deeper voice, the underlying pessimism causing Copia's brows to lift with surprise. "It is almost dark. Please, rest. You 'ave travelled all this way to help _ma famille,_ you need to focus your energies if you are to help me."

He reluctantly lifted his hand from her and nodded, his eyes narrowing as he considered her words, and the way she had flipped from happiness to sadness in a heartbeat.

Though she had not mentioned anything apart from her missing son, he decided that she was quite wise - it _was_ certainly better for he and Aemelia to get their heads down. After all, this investigation meant a lot to him, even more now that he had met Marie in person. He didn't want to screw this case up.

Marie soon returned to her overly false, happy exterior and continued to lead the two of them through the house - Aemelia was glad that Marie didn't seem to acknowledge her at all, it made her feel a lot less guilty for studying the layout and decor of the house. As they passed into the centre of the living room, they scaled the staircase to the second-level - the stairs were merely practical and fashioned out of varnished rosewood, though it appeared that they had been thoroughly cleaned recently.

On the upper level, the main hallway seemed unusually narrow and thick picture frames were hung up in the most inconvenient places. Whenever a frame was oncoming, Marie would pass without anything disrupting her path, chattering away about meaningless, petty details. Yet upon both Cardinal and Aemelia passing, the two of them would have to pause and swivel to the side, side-stepping their way by until there was space to walk normally again.

The hallway seemed to go on _forever,_ and soon, Marie's voice and footsteps began to echo upon them entering yet another staircase. Only this time, this one was crafted from sandstone, each step heavily eroded and curved on the edges. It spiralled upwards, and the two of them could deduce that she must have been leading them up towards the clock-tower they had spied on arrival.

"Marie?"Copia finally interrupted, halting on the base of the stairs which caused Aemelia to bump into him as she was heavily distracted by their new surroundings. Marie also stopped, as did her incessant chatting. The two had lost view of her as she had scaled quite a few stairs above them, her hands latching onto the central curve of stone for support. Her silence was expectant.

"Where are you taking us?" he finally asked, briefly frowning over at Miss Vial, who was patting each of his shoulders as she whispered an apology for her lapse in concentration.

"Why, the _guest room,_ of course! You are staying the night!""

"We are here to _investigate,_ Marie. Could you tell us a little bit more so we can make sure that - "

_"Not tonight."_ she snapped in a passionate outburst, the sound of a single foot-stamp bouncing from stone to stone. "The darkness... it... _confuses_ the senses. You need a clear vision and a clear head. _Rest."_

Copia peered over his shoulder at Aemelia again and she was glaring at him, unnerved by the woman's insistence to keep them stalled until the next day. Neither of them could understand why, and she didn't seem keen on explaining why either... so they both shrugged and decided to oblige her - the last thing they wanted to do was make Marie's mood ten times worse.

The woman expelled out a throaty sigh and the clack of her flat sandals resumed, the two of them slowly scaling the steps after her.

"Now, please, once we enter, you will notice that I 'ave not had much notice to sort out the room for you. Please excuse if there is any _toiles d'araignées_ or... dust. Dust is not fit for any guest, but especially _you,_ you are a _cardinal - "_

"I am sure it will be fine, Marie." Copia swiftly interjected in a reassuring tone, letting out a heavy sigh as the steps began to ascend at a much steeper level. 

Aemelia's eyes hardened as she closely followed him, her mind processing Marie's lingering words - why did the woman seem so eager to _accommodate_ them? Where was the _plague_ Copia had spoke of? Where did Marie's missing boy fit into all of this? Even the possibility of Marie being a crazed-worshipper actually crossed Aemelia's mind, but she thought that was a little bit _far-fetched_ as she'd probably been sticking her nose into too many _Stephen King_ novels recently...

"The untidy room is no bother, your excellency?" Marie suddenly spewed out in apologetic surprise, causing Cardinal to frown - he could make no sense of what she could have been apologising for. It's not like they had had a way of announcing their arrival to her, a _letter_ wouldn't have arrived in time. The two investigators had been in a panicked _rush_ to what they thought was an _urgent matter..._

"It _is_ a bother, isn't it?"

"Of course not... _ah..._ are we almost there?" he called out loudly, starting to puff out breaths of effort. Copia was certainly a physically fit man but he could no longer hide his age whenever there was something steep to climb. His leg endurance wasn't what it once was.

Much to his relief, the next turn of the staircase was the last, and he sighed out a tired breath of victory, his legs thankful for the sight of a small landing space before him. The walls were made out of the same grey stone as the exterior of the house, the floor formed out of heavy metre-long slab-stone. There were no windows, the only source of artificial light being a single bulb, suspended from the ceiling via a thin, frayed black wire. It hummed out a pathetic buzz and quite quickly caused both Copia and Vial to grit their teeth together. 

Marie leaned against one of the walls, waiting for them both to stand in the landing space, her hazel eyes seeming a lot more blood-shot than before. Her true discomfort wasn't so easy to hide, though she still held a crumpled smile across her face. Her eyes lingered on Copia for a few seconds as he came to a stop, before she took a few steps forward, twisting the rusted handle of an extremely low, iron-clad door at the end of the landing.

As she pushed, the door parted with its frame and lightly creaked open, but not entirely, just so enough of a sizeable gap appeared. The motion of the door paused and she backed away, resting into her previous position against the wall, beckoning a hand for the two of them to enter. 

"Please, settle in, Cardinal." she spoke kindly, creases in her cheeks appearing as her smile became somewhat grateful. _"Rest._ I will make sure you are well prepared in the morning."

He angled his head towards her and opened his mouth, though his eyes were latched onto the open door. It was obvious he wanted to say something else but all that he croaked out was a stern _"Thank you..."_ as he took confident steps towards the end of the landing. He was everything but cautious and brashly pushed open the rest of the door to duck inside, pausing to feel the walls either side the door-frame in hopes there was a light-switch to illuminate the room.

Aemelia was a few steps behind him, waiting to cross the threshold of the door, her dark eyes glistening as she blatantly scorched a stare at Marie, who had a silly smile on her face now that she was no longer in the presence of the cardinal. Her teeth bit into her bottom lip as she peered at the slabs on the floor, unaware of Aemelia's existence or blatantly ignoring the woman altogether. As a test, Aemelia narrowed her eyes and stuck out her tongue for a split second - yet not even such a ridiculous action managed to get the woman's attention.

Copia exclaimed out an _"Aha!"_ of discovery as a sharp click rang out, the harsh yellow of the bulb's light flickering into life. Hearing the thump of Copia's footsteps, Aemelia tore her eyes away from Marie - who was still smiling down at the floor - and stepped into the guest room, her hands grasping a hold on the heavy iron-clad door to ensure it was softly closed behind her. She wondered whether Marie would ever move from that spot outside the door...

The two of them carried on _"settling in"_ regardless of the woman's strange behaviour, taking a few seconds to survey the contents of the room they had been persuaded to stay in for the night. 

It was _cramped_ \- ripped boxes and various unwanted knick-knacks had been piled up and shoved into corners, ensuring there was more floor-space, but still, it was futile as the walls were narrow to begin with. The thin paper covering them was a garish streaked purple, a stark contrast to the minimalist aesthetic that had seemed to run through the rest of the house. A small oblong window overlooked the only piece of furniture - a single metal-frame bed that had been tucked against the farthest wall, the stained bedding on top bound tightly around the mattress, causing it to look squeezed and uncomfy. The space was reminiscent of the confines of a prison cell, which caused Cardinal and Aemelia to grimace, both of them immediately filled with regrets that they had merely gone along with Marie's wishes.

"Well... at least we have some place to stay." Copia said optimistically, eyeing the door behind them like he sensed that Marie was still lurking on the opposite side, eavesdropping their every whisper. Aemelia noticed the direction in which he was staring and stepped further into the room, keeping her eyes on him in quiet understanding of what his actions were inferring.

"I'd rather have stayed in the Ambassador to be honest with you." she murmured in defeat, abruptly turning away from him to place her hands on various bits of clutter, sliding the few remnants out from the middle of the room. Her actions caused Copia to flick his eyes towards her and she briefly paused, shooting him an understanding glance.

"There's only one bed." she stated emptily, her words patronisingly slow like she thought he was hard of hearing. "I am moving things so I have space to... sleep."

He frowned deeply, partially annoyed by how she was speaking to him, but mostly intrigued because he realised her words were masking her true meaning.

He pressed his back into the door to ensure she had plenty of room to manoeuvre, and his ears pricked up as he heard a subdued gasp from the other side of the door. He wore a startled look but the sounds of hurried footsteps over the stone-slabs faded away, prompting him to drop his alarm for the time being - nevertheless, he was once again, _extremely_ uncomfortable and perplexed about what they had gotten into.

Aemelia was busy rolling up a small woollen rug that had been a centrepiece over the floor and once it was in a compact tube, she stood it on its end and lobbed it onto one of the piles of clutter in the corner closest to Copia.

_"Ahm..._ what are you doing, Miss Vial?"

She lowered herself to the ground and sat crossed legged, leaning downwards to inspect the hollow floorboards with her probing black irises. She blew away a thin layer of dust from the wooden boards and continued to do so as she slowly swivelled on the spot, creating a dust-free circle around herself.

Once she was content, she sat up straight and placed each of her hands on her knees, facing Copia with a stern expression.

"I don't trust this place. And I don't trust _her."_ she breathed out, keeping her voice quiet like she still thought there was a chance that the strange woman may have been eavesdropping.

"Why not?"

"Do you not sense it?" she asked with gleaming, accusing eyes, her voice straining through her whispers. "The... foreboding this place holds? There are no barriers here, not like we've always had before."

Copia couldn't quite grasp what she was explaining to him but he went along and nodded his head, hoping he would understand the more she spoke. He crossed his arms over his chest, the whites of his eyes glinting with intrigue as he sighed out in thought.

"I need to ensure we're protected while we're here." she went on, placing her hands out flat over the floorboards eitherside herself. "Even if it seems pathetic... after this strange situation we find ourselves in, I think it's only right. A simple conjuring spell should do."

Copia suddenly seemed excited, his arms dropping to his sides as he took a step forwards, like he was expecting that he would have some part to play in the spell.

"A _conjuring?_ In a _stranger's house?_ How _exciting,_ Miss Vial!" he exclaimed, the enthusiastic peak in his voice pleasant to her ears as she hadn't experienced his positivity in quite a while. "I have not seen a spell executed in such a small room before!"

She scowled at his strange remark, wondering what difference it could have possibly made, but closed her eyes and rolled her head back, preparing the spell regardless of his childish fascination. She pressed her flat palms firmly against the floor, mumbling an incoherent incantation, the most subtle specks of light collecting to form up a shimmering circle over the one she had drew out amongst the layer of dust.

Copia watched with fascination, and was slightly disappointed that it hadn't lasted that long, because after a good fifteen-seconds, Aemelia's head jerked upwards and the particles of light spun once before they faded into the aether. Her eyes flashed open., the blackness present for a split-second before the whites of her eyes returned. Her hands retreated to rest over her knees as she stayed crossed-legged on the floor, peering up at Copia with inquiring eyes.

"Nothing can be heard from this room anymore, we are sealed away from her." she explained calmly, furrowing her brow as Copia visibly shivered, his cheeks warming as his mind began to run away with obscenities. "They won't hear a peep out of us, no matter if we screamed out at the top of our lungs."

"That is... reassuring to know." he replied with stern tones of innuendo with a far-away expression about him. Her frown deepened as he seemed to phase out for a few moments when she prised herself up into a standing position, brushing any stray bits of dust away from her hands and forearms.

"What's wrong?" she questioned bluntly, wondering why he was still so lost in his thoughts - after all, she thought that he should have felt a little more at ease now that protection had been cast over them for the night.

"Like you pointed out... _ehh..._ there is... only the one bed, Miss Vial." he murmured hoarsely, his eyes flinching dangerously towards the uncomfortable looking piece of furniture by the far wall. "Perhaps I should go out and ask Marie for another room - "

_"Fuck no."_ she snapped callously, his eyes glaring towards her as she folded her arms across her chest. "I am _not_ leaving this room. This is the only place I can be certain is _safe."_

He stayed quiet, swallowing to subdue the dryness he suddenly felt in his throat. His heart began to pound a little faster and he took in a deep breath in the hope it would ease the adrenaline rush that was surging through him. Strange how the thought of spending a night in an enclosed space with Aemelia Vial seemed to _frighten him_ just as much as Marie's letter had earlier that day...

"Then... ahm... if we are going to... _share_ this room I cannot allow you to sleep on the floor." he stuttered out, his apprehension seeping into every wobbly word. "We could... _share_ the bed too?"

She was completely speechless at his offer, and even more at how awkward he had managed to phrase such a thing, and she stood there staring at the floorboards for a few seconds, hoping he would quit thinking of the idea.

"Please," he continued in a quiet voice, taking a few more steps closer, his expression utterly sincere. "I can... shift to the edge a little. There will be _plenty_ of room for you, you know?"

She wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of having to share a bed with Cardinal, but she couldn't help considering his idea. She didn't fancy spending the night trapped inside that cramped tower-room, laid out over the unforgiving wood of the floorboards... so she sighed and shielded her eyes with her hands, like she was frustrated with herself for allowing the idea of accepting his request. Yet before she knew it, her answer had escaped her lips. 

_"Fine."_ she accepted in a light tone, his head raising instantly so that he could stare at her in astonishment, his mouth agape as he brought up a hand to bashfully smooth back his hair.

"Y-You will?"

"Well... yeah, it's that or I get severe back pain from the floor." she grumbled, shoving a hand into the insides of her waistcoat as she fumbled around for her packet of cigarettes. He cautiously stepped around her as she drew one of them out and slipped it between her lips, his movements fluid as he awkwardly rushed the rest of the way towards the bed, perching himself on the very edge of it with wide, apprehensive eyes.

She swivelled around to face his direction, but kept her head down, an annoyed frown gracing her brow as her hand returned to her inner pockets, her fingers pushing the items inside around frantically as she tried to find her box of matches. She growled in frustration, his wide eyes worriedly focusing on her as her breathing became coarse and quick with panic. Her head lifted as she panted out breaths through her clenched teeth, the cigarette rolling to cling to the right side of her mouth.

"No fuckin' matches." she murmured quietly, her eyes bearing an emotion he had never seen before - he wasn't sure whether it was pure frustration, panic or fury that she had misplaced something she usually prized. He could sense the start of her entity's presence, the edges of her eyes the first to sear with the familiar black shadow, and for once, his anxious demeanour faded away as he expelled out a defeated sigh.

He stood up confidently as his eyes stared back at her with tired determination, his hands waving to-and-fro in motion to try and calm her down. After this, his hands paused and he began to slide off his right glove, the stark sight of his bare hand telling her all she needed to know.

_"L'ano di Lucifero,_ Aemelia. I will light it for you." he murmured begrudgingly, his stare hardening as she slowly approached him. "I cannot have you panicking like this. We need to stay as calm as possible before we are to sleep. We must be sharp and brave for the investigation we have ahead of us."

She briefly stepped up onto her tip-toes, angling her chin up into the air, the cigarette jutting out of her mouth and into his face as she came to a halt before him. He liked her being so close to him, but he focused on his task, his fingers curling out in an elaborate fan as he reached his hand up to the gap between their faces, his fingertips conjuring the familiar blue sparks. The small licks of fire seared into the end of her cigarette and she immediately dropped down to her usual height, taking a step back as she took in her first inhalation, a relieved expression upon her pale features. The concern and anger she had displayed did irk him, but he decided to ignore it and slid his hand back into his glove, slumping back down onto the bed abruptly, the metal frame wincing out loudly.

He sat there a while as she took a few long drags, before she let the cigarette smoke away between her lips so that she could wander over to the bed, which caused his back to straighten instantly, his body tensing as she perched on the edge beside him. The cigarette drooped down slightly as she leaned forwards, her black fingernails picking at the knots of her Oxfords.

"Ahm..." Copia suddenly began in a high-pitch, causing her to pause and shoot her dark eyes up to intensely stare at him - she had gotten used to that nervous tone in his voice, and it was never there when he had something _positive_ to say. "I... should _probably_ tell you that... as we are in great need of sleep tonight for the... _very_ important investigation tomorrow, I... will be taking extra _precautions_ to ensure that I have a successful sleep..."

She freed herself of her first shoe, sliding it off to lightly drop it to the floor. Her eyes were still glued to him, even as she started on the next shoe.

"You do what you must, Cardinal." she replied, her voice smooth and mellow from the recent hit of nicotine. "I think we'll need a lot of our energies tomorrow, like Marie said - and I still have a strange feeling about this place - "

"Even if the precaution is that I sleep best _naked?!"_ Copia blurted out in one rush of words, his gloved hands clapping over his mouth as he frowned at his own actions. A wave of embarrassment washed over him and his cheeks began to redden beneath the leather of his gloves.

Aemelia halted her movements sharply at his words, her once approachable demeanour morphing into her usual witty cynicism. 

"You know what? I'd rather _suffer_ the fuckin' floorboards." she retorted spitefully, already shuffling herself upwards in order to stand up from the bed.

_"Miss Vial! I am not lying to you - "_

She halted again and narrowed her eyes at him, heavily sitting back down, the mattress bouncing precariously.

"I never said you were." she said softly with a hint of sadness, averting her eyes from him so that it would give him time to recover from his embarrassment. "Right, maybe... maybe we can figure some way of this working, I don't know."

His hands dropped from his face and he breathed out deeply, his head angling so that he could peer up towards the tall ceiling of the clock-tower - how on Earth hadn't either of them noticed that before? It was hardly noticeable - not even the sounds of their voices could be heard echoing up into the rafters...

"How about this... " Aemelia continued, oblivious to the fact he no longer seemed to be focused on her. "If you absolutely _must_ be starkers you can sleep under the covers, and... I'll sleep on top? Provided I can use your coat for a blanket, how's that sound?"

Her compromise caused him drop his head back down so that he could face her, a broad smile finding its way over his mouth - she was being unusually kind towards him but he knew it was likely to do with the bubbling sense of dread the two of them secretly shared. He nodded in eager acceptance, furtively thrilled with the fact she would be lying close to him that night, regardless of the situation - his heart would surely be beating ten to the dozen due to her close presence. He could already imagine awakening to the scent of her - the overpowering white musk, the bitterness of tobacco smoke, the underlying sweetness of burning incense. What pleased him more was the fact that her scent would surely stain the sleek fabric of his black tailcoat...

It was in that moment where he realised that his affections towards Aemelia Vial had shifted, and somehow, her presence had caused him to forget about all of the disconcerting, dreadful things that were preying on his mind.


	4. It Hinders

The two of them felt groggy as they awoke the next morning - the disturbing sound of metallic clattering (of what they assumed to be battered _pipes_ of the house) springing every unwilling being out of their deep slumber. They hadn't planned on waking up at the crack of dawn but after they'd eventually startled into consciousness, they figured they might as well face the daylight - its rays splayed through the small window-slit above them, their eyes squinting in protest. Somehow, the two of them had managed to sleep soundly, even in the midst of the most unnerving of strange situations.

Miss Vial had been the first to stand to her bare feet after sliding the warmth of Copia's tailcoat from her person, her ligaments cracking as she stretched herself into existence. She couldn't bring herself to glance at Copia, who was groaning now that he had his arms extended above him, the awareness that he was still completely naked under the thin bed-sheets seemed to momentarily slip his mind...

Loathing the feel of her clothes sticking to her, Aemelia was a little peeved that she had no fresh change of clothes - neither did Copia, and she was dreading the consequences of him realising such a thing. Though she did not have any spare clothes, she recalled that she had a wash-bag amongst the various equipment in the back of her sedan - which was filled with basic amenities like toothbrushes, face wipes, combs, etc. - in the case of an unforeseeable emergency. 

Deciding that it would probably be of use to them, she perched back down to sit on the edge of the bed, straightening out the crumples in her tie by tightening it into a neat position around her collar. She then readjusted her waistcoat as it had skewed out of place whilst she had been sleeping, her ears pricking up at the sound of the sheets scratching behind her - she could sense Copia moving about, but she refrained from glancing at him, leaning down to retrieve one of her shoes from the floorboards.

"Ah... _good morning,_ Miss Vial..." he murmured gingerly, his voice unusually thick due to the remnants of his slumber. She felt the faint warmth of one of his bare hands lightly resting over her left shoulder and she glared her eyes in confusion, focusing her attention on the second shoe she was sliding onto her foot. She was glad that she had an excuse to lean forwards, for as soon as she did, his limp hand vacated her so that she could concentrate on tying up her laces.

"Where are you going?" he asked slowly, his mind starting to make sense of his surroundings a little more now.

"To grab a freshen-up bag." she replied curtly, knotting the last of her shoe-ties with a look of caution. "Unless you're fine dealing with _fluffy teeth_ while we investigate?"

She couldn't help smirking with amusement as he let out a mumble of disgust.

_"Gak!_ No no no no!" he exclaimed in his usual higher pitch of voice, clearly the unpleasant thought had caused him to awaken a bit faster. "Go grab that and... _ahm..._ I will... dress myself while you are gone."

He sounded a little confused towards the end of his sentence, like he was _surprised_ at the fact he was completely bare - she couldn't help wondering why, but thought it best to stay quiet. She certainly wasn't going to bring up a conversation about his _lack of clothes_ anytime soon...

"Alright." she agreed shortly, standing to her feet once again but very much ensuring her back was to him. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Please... be careful." he said quietly, the rustling of sheets sounding out again as he replaced the hand that she had previously rejected, his grip a lot more firm and meaningful over her left shoulder this time. She was not nearly as uncomfortable with his actions and let it be, nodding her head at his request.

"I will."

* * *

Once Copia was dressed, he loitered awkwardly in the centre of the upstairs corridor. He figured that Aemelia wouldn't want to scale the clock-tower stairs again so he thought he'd save her the trip. He'd managed to pull out some of the creases that had developed over his suit trousers and the material now clung snugly around his legs. As he patiently anticipated her arrival, he ran his gloved hands down his front, dipping his head down slightly to deeply inhale the surface of its material. It seemed his hopes had come true, for her scent had seeped into the fabric of his tailcoat and he smiled, closing his eyes as he raised his head back up to shudder out an exhale.

It wasn't much longer before Aemelia returned, her movements slowing as he began to approach her eagerly. She rifled through the contents of a navy blue zip-bag which she held across her chest, wordlessly handing him various items that would probably help him scrub up - the small bundle in his arms grew taller over the course of a few seconds, topped with the unexpected addition of a monochrome palette of eye-shadow and a thick eye-liner pen. He widened his eyes at her, but didn't say a word, taken aback by how perceptive and considerate her gesture was. She merely gazed at him neutrally, and gestured towards a room behind him.

"Apparently there's a bathroom about three doors down." she stated sincerely, zipping up the wash-bag in order to hug it to her chest. He nodded in thanks and dropped his attention to settle on the bundle of useful items he held in his arms.

"Marie finally spoke to you?" he asked with a hint of bewilderment, knitting his eyebrows in thought. 

"Nah, found the room myself." she replied shortly, wearing an indifferent expression. "I can't be a _complete_ ghost to her though - she's started cooking breakfast downstairs already... so she _must_ have seen me."

"How _interesting..."_ he muttered, squinting his eyes in suspicion as she waved him towards the direction of the bathroom again. "I will not be long, Miss Vial, I promise." 

After they had both freshened up - his chestnut hair damply smoothed back and combed, her burgundy hair neatly plaited - they headed down to the first floor, Copia's expression cautious whereas Aemelia seemed like she couldn't have cared less, hugging the wash-bag to her chest. As she led the way through the wide living room space, headed towards the kitchen - as, naturally, Copia had forgotten where such a room was located - she observed him in her peripheral vision, a small smirk of amusement tugging at her mouth. He'd certainly made use of the makeup she'd offered him - he'd managed to replicate the usual thick black outlines around his eye-sockets, but from the slight smudged glow of the eye-shadow at the edges, it caused him to look somewhat _ethereal,_ the stark colours of his irises glistening vividly.

The kitchen, upon their arrival, was vacant of anyone aside from Marie. She was busy at the stove, shimmying a pan containing a sizzling omelette, but she had enough of a sense to peer over her shoulder, beaming an approachable grin at Copia.

"Bonjour, Cardinal!" she exclaimed, bringing up a hand to tuck a loose strand of black hair around her ear. "Please, take a seat. Your breakfast will be with you shortly... I hope you slept well?"

As much as he really didn't feel like eating, he decided to oblige her hospitality and warily shuffled his way to the dining table she had briefly glanced towards. Cutlery had been laid out to perfection, but it was soon knocked out of place when he awkwardly slid himself over one of the wooden seats. He didn't feel as uneasy when Aemelia pulled out the chair next to him and sat down beside him, laying the wash-bag across her lap. He caught her gaze with his own, both of them wearing the same expression of bewilderment. They supposed they would allow Marie to finish her duties or they may never get any useful information out of her at all...

They both sat in silence, the intoxicating smell of the food invading their nostrils as they continued to stare at one another.

"You like coffee?" Marie piped up, causing Cardinal to flick his eyes away from Aemelia momentarily.

_"Ehhh..._ oui! You know what... make it _two,_ Marie. I... need perking up." he said chirpily as he patted his chest, sharply returning his eyes to his colleague, who gave him a grateful nod. Miss Vial wasn't much of a coffee drinker but she could have drank _anything_ that morning - the pollinated air had made her feel thirsty. 

Eventually, Marie finished up the food and drinks, skilfully balancing everything on the flat palms of her hands. She reminded them both of a well-trained waitress as she escorted the cups and plates over to them, setting down the generous helping of food on the table in front of him. The placement of cups soon followed and she smiled gleefully before sharply turning towards the opposite side of the table. Cardinal seized the moment to swiftly slide the second cup of coffee across the table, finding enough time to hand over the slices of toast that had been clinging to the edge of his plate. Aemelia furrowed her brow at his actions but gladly took the food from his hands, the insistence in his eyes an unexpected sight.

His attention swayed from her to settle on his plate of food and it was clear - from how tense he was sitting - that he wasn't exactly comfortable. Marie was now sat across from him, her elbow bent as she cushioned her chin against her palm to peer at him in amazement. She was intently anticipating him tucking into the breakfast - he lifted the knife and fork, cautiously beginning to slice up the omelette she had prepared for him. The unbearable silence that emerged as both he and Aemelia started to eat was _insufferable_ \- they knew they were being _stalled_ again, but they both felt obliged to honour Marie's generosity, no matter how odd her behaviour was towards them.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for a noise to shatter the silence's existence. 

The clattering sound that had awoke them that morning had returned, both Copia and Vial's eyes drawn to the source of the loud, ominous sound. It shuddered out for quite some time and the more they heard it, the more they realised it sounded like some kind of _latch mechanism,_ or perhaps like something metallic was being forced to _move..._ before either of them could stand up to follow the source of the noise, the sound abruptly stopped just as quickly as it had started.

"Are you in need of any maintenance, Marie?" Cardinal inquired softly, poising his knife and fork mid-air as he glanced towards her with concern.

_"Hm?"_ she responded, blinking at him dreamily like she hadn't understood the meaning of what he was asking her.

"That sound, did you not hear it? It is the pipes, no?" he questioned inquisitively, gesturing the knife in the direction he believed the sound to have been coming from.

"Sound? What sound?"

Copia quickly shot his eyes towards Aemelia, who was staring back at him, quietly sinking her teeth into one of the slices of buttered toast. She shrugged at him and he inhaled sharply, deciding that it was probably best to cut to the chase - after all, perhaps the horrendous clattering could have been related to their investigation somehow.

"What becomes of this plague you wrote of in your letter?" he asked in defeat, letting out a sigh of exasperation. Marie clutched to the idea of her smile, but her hazel eyes gave away that she was unnerved by his question, her eyelids faltering as tears began to form.

"There is... _une petite ville,_ it... is not so far from here. Maybe a mile or so." she finally explained as she sat up straight in her chair, stroking the back of her neck with her palm as she staggered out a frightened exhale. "Remy... often cut through the woods to get there. He said the town is where he found them. The second time he went to look... he never came back."

Aemelia narrowed her eyes at the woman's words, content that the woman finally had come to her senses, but she also wondered whether Marie's words could have been any more _ambiguous._ Copia immediately dropped the cutlery in his hands and nodded in gratitude, his eyes thankful as he stared into Marie's reddened eyes.

"Which direction is that from here, Marie?" he prompted gently, Miss Vial stuffing the second slice of toast into her mouth so that she could wash it down with a large gulp of coffee.

"West." the woman breathed in reply, tears silently spilling down her cheeks. She raised one of her forearms to her face and quickly wiped the tears away, prompting Copia to nod his head gratefully again.

"That is all we require to know, Marie. You have been a great help."

They wasted no time loitering now that Marie had given them the slither of information they needed in order to progress with their investigation. They abruptly stood up from their chairs, Miss Vial taking one last sip of her coffee when Copia politely bowed towards Marie. Slamming the cup down, Aemelia grabbed hold of her wash-bag and instantly began to leave the premises, whether Copia was following her or not. He swivelled around in an unnatural, awkward position, feeling uncomfortable that he was set on leaving whilst Marie was quietly crying - but the investigation practically _called out_ to him, urging him to display his unholy presence...

Clutching the wash-bag to her chest with one hand and holding her car keys in the other, Aemelia elbowed the front door open, kicking the flat sole of her left shoe onto its surface to ensure it was pushed back enough to stay open for Cardinal. Next, she briskly strolled towards the black sedan, the golden rays of morning sunshine bouncing attractively from its gloss-paint finish.

As she continued to promptly journey towards her vehicle, Copia had reached the threshold of the farm-house door, Marie swiftly on his tail as she bombarded him with inconveniently timed questions and concerns. When she didn't get a response from him, she pushed past him, desperately muttering all sorts to him in her native language.

"We will only return once we have solved your problem, Marie. Now, please, let me pass." Copia pressed firmly, hoping it would silence her from saying another word. As much as he understood the woman's anxiety, he was incredibly irritated with how she persisted to stall him from the case.

She begrudgingly stood aside, her approachable attitude nowhere to be seen as she crossed her arms over. He swiftly brushed by her shoulder as he finally escaped the woman's presence, dust and gravel crunching beneath his winkle-pickers as he picked up speed, jogging over to the black sedan with heightened enthusiasm. Aemelia was stood by the open tail-gate, placing the wash-bag back in its usual spot in the trunk, a deep scowl across her features as she considered the placement of everything that resided there.

"Have you been in here recently?" she asked quietly, her eyes narrowing in speculation due to the chaotic scattering of a variety of equipment - the items crafted out of wood, plastic or cardboard had all been viciously _chewed_ to bits...

Copia proceeded to open the passenger door and bounced onto the seat with a contented sigh of relief, slamming the door closed. He twisted his torso around to peer through the gap between the driver and passenger seat to face her, his brow furrowing with interest.

"Have I _what?"_

"I said: Have you been in here - _the trunk_ \- recently?"

_"Eh..._ no. Why do you ask?"

His eyes widened and his teeth clenched as she violently slammed the tail-gate down in reply, clearly miffed with the disorganised - and _vandalised_ \- assorted mess of equipment in the sedan's boot.

He braced himself for her annoyance and strapped his seat-belt in place - he supposed he could handle the _wrath of Vial_ now that they were no longer in the home of the strange _Marie._ In fact, he was secretly looking forward to seeing her anger for once - it was a sane reminder of _normality._ She slung the door open and slumped down onto the driver's seat, hooking her hand around the handle to slam the door closed.

"The trunk's a fucking _mess._ It wasn't like that before..." she hissed bitterly, yanking her seat-belt across herself. "Something's had a fuckin' _whale_ of a time back there, gnawing on all sorts - _chucking_ stuff everywhere. Fucking _chaos."_

She slotted the key into the ignition and firmly twisted - the engine burbled into life, and she closed her eyes at the sound like it satisfied her somehow.

"I could... sort it for you later, if you like?" he offered softly, his eyes gleaming with sincerity.

"Nah, forget it. We've got more pressing matters, haven't we?"

* * *

They followed the vague information that Marie had provided - she had failed to mention that there was a narrow dust-track that laid to the east of the wooded area she had mentioned. The sedan had coped well with the uneven surface as it followed the dust-course, which appeared to circle around one edge of the woodland. After quite some time, the faint hazy sight of a settlement appeared on the horizon, the woodland and wheat-fields slowly phasing out around them as the sedan crawled closer.

Copia tensely sat in the passenger-seat, his eyes fixed to the sight of the town on the horizon. He wished they could arrive there faster, but he understood why Aemelia was driving so steadily. He became preoccupied the closer and closer they neared, and he eventually huffed out deeply, deciding to trust the feeling of dread that suddenly decided to hit him.

"Could you pull over for a moment, Aemelia?" he asked in a hushed tone of voice, breathing out in slight relief when she immediately obliged his wishes, slowly steering towards the mud-ditch at the side of the track to smoothly bring the vehicle to a gentle stop. She cranked the handbrake and gladly gave him her attention - she had sensed how uncomfortable he was ever since they had left the farm-house, so she was very much anticipating him blurting out his complaints about their current situation.

"Before we approach..." he began in a serious tone, his voice controlled despite the fact he was still sitting tensely. "Would you permit me to ensure that we are protected? There... could be the remnants of a plague that is still active in that town, we don't know what kind of state it is in... "

He paused and she searched his face, surprised how much care he seemed to be taking during this investigation. The case had barely begun, yet he was already considering precautions - as much as it unsettled her that he must have sensed some ill-feeling on the horizon, his offer of protection was quite comforting to her because it was something she had never considered herself.

"If you allow me a few moments, Miss Vial?" he added hopefully as he turned in his seat to properly face her, outstretching his hands towards her. She nodded and dropped her hands from the steering wheel, her black eyes bearing caution as she rested each of her hands into the firm grip of his gloves.

"Close your eyes." he instructed, already squeezing his eyes shut tightly as he knitted his brows together in concentration. Her brow furrowed in interest but she did as he requested, and as soon as she did, he inhaled deeply, his fingers folding down to grasp her hands a little more tightly. She expected him to mutter some kind of _incantation_ or even considered that he would burst into a fit of amused snorts like it was some kind of strange _joke_ \- but neither happened. Her scowl deepened as quite a few seconds passed and nothing apparent seemed to have occurred. She parted her lips as she began to formulate a question, but he squeezed her hands and let out a subdued _"Shhhh..."_ like he had already known that she was about to question his actions. They sat in silence for at least two minutes after that, his grip easing with every few seconds that passed.

On the approach to three minutes, his fingers were poised limply below hers. She cautiously cracked her eyes open, letting out a relieved sigh when she opened them fully to see that he was gazing back at her.

"That little spell should have helped." he said in a much calmer voice, dropping his arms down by his sides as he shuffled back into his seat, staring at the road ahead of them through the wind-shield. "You can never be too careful..."


	5. It Gathers

The château-town was barren, the stink of musty, scorched vegetation clinging to the placid, dank breeze. It was overbearing and fetid, faint singed embers lightly lingering in the air like something was perpetually combusting. The very soil of the once fertile, beautiful town was now infected with disconcerting pustules of blackened roots and weeds, like a disease had ravaged life so much that it had seeped its way into the very earth.

Walls of buildings had been hacked down or _burst through,_ the brickwork crumbling away into depressing mounds of cream and grey plaster. The town had probably once stood as a magnificent, unspoiled presence, but now, it was nothing but rubble amongst lumps of stone ruins.

Both Copia and Vial were unusually quiet, stood side-by-side in one of the town's few open clearings - this one appeared to be the remains of what was once the town's thriving meadow, the few long sprigs of grass that remained tainted a sickly sienna. An unspoken vow of silence had emerged between them, as the true visceral tale of their surroundings was becoming more apparent. There was no evidence pointing to how long the town had been left in ruins and that fact alone unnerved the two of them. The ever-present summer humidity clung to them like a clammy, ghostly reminder of the warm bodies of residents going about their daily business, like life had been present not so long ago. It was a depressing, flicker of a reminder that made their eyes shine with sorrow as they swallowed back the lumps that had formed within their throats.

Neither of them had ever faced an investigation with such sadness before, and unusually, even Copia failed to find the urge to make light of their pitiful surroundings. Despite this, he was still intrigued by how _desolate_ it was - after all, there was still no sign of the horrors Marie had written of in her letter.

"This is no town." he murmured, shaking his head as they meandered in the direction of what seemed to be the crumbled shreds of - what they _assumed_ to be, due to placement of buildings around them - a town square. "It is... a graveyard. A plague has certainly ravaged this place, Miss Vial. It has reaped the people and the buildings and all its little bits of history - it has not even allowed the bodies of those it has claimed to linger."

They paused as he sharply breathed out and sadly peered down at the ground. Aemelia found herself consoling him before she even realised her own actions, placing a hand onto his left shoulder as she furrowed her eyebrows in worry.

"I... I usually take pleasure in the aftermath of plague." he admitted quietly, shaking his head as he kept his eyes on the ground - if she had gotten a glimpse of them, she would have likely seen the clear sight of his shame. "It is my job to keep a good track of them, even _mold_ them as I wish... but, this one was one that... I could not foresee. It arrived silently... and I was exempt from interfering, _heh."_

His bitter chuckle was coated with disappointment and she lifted her hand from his shoulder, causing him to raise his head up slightly, but he was still gazing at the ground, ensuring that he was still avoiding her eyes.

"This was never supposed to emerge here?" she asked in a small, curious voice, to which he nodded glumly.

"I am afraid so, Miss Vial. It arrived and eradicated. Paranoia must have spread like wildfire. If you were not diseased, the insanity would become unbearable. Like the middle ages but... far more _rapid,_ unlike any nightmare that you could imagine..."

For someone so accustomed to monitoring plagues, she couldn't understand his reaction. She realised that the carcass of the town must have been devastating for him to see, but then she supposed - from how he spoke on the topic - he must have been used to witnessing these depressing sorts of places... or perhaps he merely sat on the outskirts, biding his time to see how each one would blossom. But knowing him as well as she did now, she knew he had been extremely careful and purposeful with his phrasing - like he was telling _half-truths_ or _vague statements_ to make sure she wouldn't question him. There was likely a lot _more_ to his plague monitoring than he was letting on.

"It cannot have been so long since it passed through." he continued, oblivious to the speculative expression she adorned across her features. "I have never seen devastation like it, Miss Vial... I... have none of the words, right now..."

She brought her hand down onto his shoulder again, firmly gripping it as she didn't know what she could possibly say to help his uneasiness. To her surprise, her action had seemed to do some good, as he soon expelled a heavy breath when his shoulders seemed to relax their tension. 

In her mind, as she gazed at him so sincerely, Aemelia was already considering the possibilities of what had caused such a _unrecognisable_ plague to manifest. Though she had her suspicions, she knew one thing for certain: the Ministry had no part in its existence... 

* * *

Time seemed to pass differently whilst they solemnly explored the bones of the idyllic, tight-knit township. They had taken quite a chunk of time to scout out the main high-streets, the lined tarmac underfoot was the indicator of one, though most of the roads were now concealed beneath a thin, festering covering of singed weeds. 

Feeling content now that they had a fairly rough outline of what most areas had once been - _without an awful lot of discussion at all_ \- the afternoon rolled in across the pale, azure sky, the clouds above splitting off to unveil the remorseless heat rays from the sun. Even with the humidity before, it had been somewhat bearable, but now, the two of them were pulling at their shirt collars in the hopes that it would create some draft.

They decided that it was probably best to head back to Marie's farm-house in order to hydrate themselves and avoid the unrelenting heat, so they swiftly retraced their way back towards the sedan - which had been parked in a lay-by on the outskirts of the place. Miss Vial hadn't wanted to risk _anything_ happening to her precious Ambassador sedan.

It wasn't long before they could see the meadow they had first passed through, sweat starting to coat their skin as their pace picked up. Breaths of effort soon followed, their legs seeming to power ahead, regardless of whether they wanted to or not. They glanced towards one another with panicked eyes, unsure of what strange force was coercively drawing them forwards. It didn't take them long to realise, for what resided in the withering patches of grass ahead, caused them both to override the energy that was drawing them nearer.

At first, the two of them couldn't take the sight before their eyes seriously - it could very well have been something crude that had been set up by cruel _pranksters,_ who were dressed up in cheap Halloween reaper-attire, with hooded cloaks fashioned out of sheets of netting that ended sparingly above their bare toes... but it didn't take long for them both to realise that there was nothing _illusive_ about the sight at all...

The strange, haunting bodies had hour-glass figures - some would say their body shapes were _to die for,_ but these things took it quite literally, an untraceable aura of withering surrounding them as they glided across the ground. The faint forms of what appeared to be their heads were faced downwards, like they were deeply contemplating to themselves, losing the awareness of the world that existed around them.

Charred tunics coarsely hung over their figures in webbed nets and frayed rags, covering each creature from head to toe. Moss-topped black sheets of netting obscured each of the warped faces - _faces,_ in the most _hideous_ of instances - in a terrifying form of a chopped bridal veil. 

Both Copia and Vial couldn't take their eyes away from the foreign apparitions, and for some reason, they found themselves slowly stepping closer, the dry scrape of the flaky mud under their feet causing them both to wince. Now that they were timidly drawn closer, the distinct, surreal scent of a feminine perfume sharply swept through the air, prompting Aemelia to squeeze her eyes shut in disgust.

There must have been at least a dozen of the strange, skeletal beings, the tips of their toes angled to the ground below as they levitated over the land, peacefully gliding like they were no threat at all. Each of them were quite some distance apart, stationed like dormant watchmen as they began to spread out further and further, each one knowing their place as they glided towards the various spaces left amongst the husk of the town. The pack of the them looked like a gloomy reminder of the inevitable end to life, and the silence of their existence spoke volumes.

"Please tell me you have seen these things before..." Copia whispered, tightly encircling a glove around Miss Vial's wrist as the two of them came to an abrupt halt in unison, the creatures still intent on keeping their distance from them. It seemed the things were set on filing themselves into the town, regardless of the presence of the two investigators - had these things _always_ been present since they had arrived?

"I'm afraid I haven't a clue what these things are." Aemelia spoke truthfully, frowning down at the firm grip he had on her as she glanced over her shoulder to observe the haunting movements of the strange, cadaverous creatures. "They're almost like... _wraiths._ But from how they move... I think they must share a _hive mind..._ look how they're starting to sync up and circle. I reckon they could change on a _whim_ if they wanted to."

"Perhaps they are scouting... you know, looking for someone?" he considered in a whisper and her head slowly turned to face him, his concerned, mismatched eyes gazing back at her with grievous wisdom.

"The boy Marie was taking about?" she asked, hoping she was following his train of thought. She understood the underlying emotion shining in his eyes as his clenched glove slid upwards to grasp around her forearm.

_"Remy?_ Maybe, yes."

"I think Remy's ship sailed long ago, Cardinal." she admitted softly with hardened honesty in her black irises. He frowned slightly and closed his eyes, nodding in reluctant agreement as he gently released his grip on her.  
  
"They know we're close-by." she said a little more loudly, trying to steer away from the subject of the boy's disappearance. "They weren't here before so I can only think that our nosying 'round here has summoned their presence. Their strange cyclical behaviour is likely their way of _warding_ us off. They might even be able to sense our... _energies,_ I don't know."

"We are a _threat_ to them?" he wondered, narrowing his eyes in deep thought as he turned around to face the creatures, which were hovering around the ruins in a slow, orchestrated pattern. "Yes, Miss Vial... I... I think you may be right."

"Well, if I am, we're gonna have to capture one of them and see how we get rid of 'em." she reasoned bluntly, earning an almost offended look from Copia. 

"We _what?!"_ he squeaked out in disbelief, waving his gloves in erratic disagreement. _"No no no,_ Miss Vial. We... stay all _cool_ and _quiet_ and... _ah... study_ them. We can suss out what game they are playing - "

"Fuck. _That."_ she snapped in a breathy rasp of frustration, scolding him with her impassable eyes. "I'm not here to be a whispering fuckin' _David Attenborough_ while we _"bird-watch"_ the supernatural. We don't have time to study the fucking _ins-and-outs_ of the behavioural patterns of these... bloody _plague dispensers."_

"Plague _dispensers?"_ he called back with considerable dislike for the name, his gaze immovable as he stared back at her. _"That_ is what we are calling them?"

"For now." she responded curtly, crossing her arms over her chest. "If we're able to entice one out of the cycle, we'll maybe have chance of strapping one down - "

_"What?!"_ he gasped out with unpleasant surprise, hugging his arms around himself as a repulsed grimace scrunched across his face. "What are we planning on doing, Aemelia?"

"Erasing them."she said simply, her eyes shifting from him as she turned to face the strange beings once again. "You said it yourself - they are not of _Luciferian_ origin, otherwise you would've known about them... so why worry about culling these things back? Once we know their weakness we can bring this place the peace it deserves."

He kept silent for a moment, realising she wasn't questioning the existence of Lucifer - rather, she was _assuming_ it. He wondered why she had decided to accept the existence of Him, but he supposed if he asked, it wasn't exactly the most convenient of times, so he kept quiet. 

"You make a fair point." he answered with his usual buoyant, high-pitch of voice. "How do we begin?"

She pressed a finger to her lips to infer she wished for quiet, her other hand beckoning him to follow her as she began to make her way across the balding meadow - which was finally vacant of any wretched creatures.


	6. An Imperative Trial

Much to Copia's surprise, it seemed like Miss Vial's black sedan was the key to their progress. He was sat in bewilderment with a stiff back, staring out of the wind-shield with wide eyes as the approach to the town grew closer once again. He really didn't like the thought of returning so soon now that they had briefly been away, but he knew that they couldn't risk leaving the unpredictable creatures alive.

The engine revved harshly as the vehicle rolled to a stop, its surroundings the familiar setting of the town's defiled square, which was an oblong expanse with plenty of flat space. Aemelia threw off her seat-belt and swiftly exited the car, Copia a lot less eager as he slowly, reluctantly left the vehicle's interior. She neatly re-folded her shirt's sleeves, ensuring that they were secure as she surveyed the area for the ghoulish apparitions. He unenthusiastically approached her, deciding to stand by her side to follow her line of sight.

The location of the creatures hadn't really differed since they had left, much to their discomfort. But upon them returning, it seemed like they had slowly started to awaken once again, gliding inch by inch into a quicker form of consciousness.

"How... _eh..._ how are you planning on luring one of them? You just want _one,_ right?" Copia asked hurriedly, his eyes glued to the disturbing sight of them speeding up the tempo of their movement cycle, all at the same time, all at the same pace. "I do not think they would appreciate you taking out one of their _hive-mates,_ you know?"

Miss Vial swivelled around slightly in order to lean back and patted the bonnet of the sedan, his attention on her immediately due to her intriguing actions.

"I've got some capture-nets in the back of this." she stated with a degree of confidence that he was not certain he trusted. "One of us holds the net, the other tries to do what they can to bait one out."

"Ahm... _ahah..._ I'm sorry, Miss Vial... _ahm..._ is this us trying to catch a possibly _deadly_ paranormal being, or us trying to play some strange role-play of, _ah... Jurassic Park?"_

Her expression darkened and she set her jaw with annoyance, squinting her eyes at him venomously. He gulped with nervousness despite wearing the most neutral expression he could muster.

"Alright then... what suggestions do _you_ have, Copia?" she questioned quietly, her hushed tone seeming far more dangerous than whenever she had raised her voice to him.

 _"Eh..._ I... I do not have any."

"Thought so. That's settled then." she muttered defiantly, rounding the side of the sedan before he could register what she had said. "I'll be in charge of the net."

The tail-gate of the sedan hissed open and she was already set on rummaging through the scattered mess of the trunk, focusing on finding the equipment she required.

"Hey! _Wait wait wait wait_ \- that is not _fair,_ Miss Vial!" he exclaimed like a whining child once he had realised what she had said, hurriedly making his way over to her. "I am definitely not _ah..._ comfortable being _bait_ of any kind."

"Well, all you have to do is get a little closer to them, then... throw a rock or something. I don't think it's that difficult to grasp."

"I am not comfortable with... the _closeness,_ Aemelia. But I have _quite_ the _experience_ with nets - "

Her hands finally clutched at the capture-net and she flung the heavy threading over her shoulder, causing him to sharply step away from her. She used her free arm to violently slam the tail-gate closed, spinning around to face him with an amused smirk.

"I couldn't give a _damn_ about what sort of _experience_ you have. I thought you would've _jumped_ at the chance of doing something _new._ Sometimes it's good to have new experiences, isn't it?" she retorted lightly, her dark eyes gleaming with snide mirth which left him visibly speechless. "No matter what crafty tricks these things try, I won't allow them to harm you in any way, alright?"

He nodded in response, a little reassured that she understood his discomfort. Usually, he oozed confidence, but the possibility of the creatures being utterly _devastating_ had weighed too much on his mind for him to have any faith in himself, let alone her.

"It... it is my suit, you know?" he stuttered out with a nervous frown. "I don't want another one ruined... _heh."_

She smiled at him, fully aware he was covering his apprehension with a strange bout of awkwardness. Even though she knew he wasn't comfortable with what she required him to do, she certainly wasn't changing the plan to suit _him -_ so she pointed towards a spot ahead of the sedan, where one of the creatures was idling a few inches over the ground, tracing the outskirts of the town-square.

With a defeated sigh and stiff arms by his sides, Copia nodded his head and hesitantly obliged her motion, heading towards the direction she had pointed. Although his heart had started to pound due to the expectation of the unknown, confidence began to rise within him with every step he took, his eyes transfixed to the closest floating cadaver he could see. Aemelia kept a few metres behind him but had her fingers hooked into the net, readily poising it out in front of her. She seemed _awfully_ calm - it was almost like she had done such a thing before.

Copia bit his bottom lip, internally desperate to say something, but he was too unsettled by the distance closing between him and the strange being to say a word. His strides soon slowed to a stop over the flat ground of the town-square, his sudden change of state causing the creature to roll its neck around, its head angling towards him. He froze in place with his eyes wide, the leather of his gloves creaking loudly as he balled his hands into fists. Thin drips of sweat trickled down his temples as the creature gracefully swept through the air, abandoning its routine pattern to swerve around piles of ash and rubble, its spindly arms arched out by its sides, its bony fingers wriggling like it was enjoying the feel of the wafting air over its digits.

 _"Ahhhhhhh... Miiiss Viiiiial... I don't like it I don't like it I don't like it!"_ Copia finally rushed out in a series of desperate whispers, his eyes unable to tear away from the creature as it gained a lot more speed than either of them had ever considered, zooming across in an alarming, inhuman stance through the air. 

_"Gahhhh!_ Fuck this shit!" he yelled out in a release of frustrated nervousness, swiftly backing away towards his associate, who widened her eyes in fascination, noticing how eagerly Copia attracted the being. She decided to pause in her position, preparing the net in the hopes that Copia would back towards her. But he did no such thing, and spun around, sprinting as fast as he could to bypass her entirely, heading over to one side of the town-square that was a much more open bit of grassland. 

To her amazement, the being pursued the exact route that Copia had taken, the fluttering hems of its clothed body scratching against Aemelia's side as it passed her, like it was completely unaware of her existence. 

_"Gah!_ It is _still_ following me?!" he protested, bounding in graceful leaps in various directions, hoping the creature would cease to stalk him with such precision. "For _lussuria di satana_ , net it!"

Aemelia ignored his panicked shouts, her eyes mesmerised by the creature's behaviour as it persisted to haunt him, gaining a few inches closer even as he sharply changed direction. It didn't seem to be particularly threatening towards either of them, least of all her. It was almost acting like it had taken a _shine_ to Cardinal, following him obediently like a stray cat he'd happened to pass. Her grip on the capture-net slackened and she wore a thoughtful expression, holstering the equipment over one of her shoulders for the time being.

As Copia's manic movements started to slow and his breaths became more prominent, he cut across the ground in a diagonal movement, headed straight towards Aemelia.

 _"Stop."_ she ordered firmly, extending out her hand unexpectedly so that he was forced to skid to a abrupt halt before he bumped into her, his eyes wide as he stared at her anxiously.

 _"Meh... Miss Vial!"_ he puffed out, his chest heaving as he took in gulps of air. "What is the meaning of th - ?"

His apprehension fell completely, almost as if a switch controlling his demeanour had been flicked. He stared at her blankly, but the skin of his nose wrinkled slightly as he began to squint at her, the emotion his irises displaying confidence and cunning. She clutched her hands to the net over her shoulder, like she was already forming a backup plan in her mind, in case the creature had affected Copia somehow.

The corpse-like creature lurked behind him, it's stringy arms raised so that it's rotting hands could rest across his shoulders, like it was some twisted form of _comfort._ The hands were light and delicate, but that certainly didn't affect the putrid stink they gave off, and Copia ensured he stood as still as he could, letting out single cough of disgust.

The briefest twitch of a smirk flickered over his mouth and his opal eye flashed vehemently as his features formed a menacing sneer - he sharply thrust each of his elbows backwards, grappling them into the mid-section of the being. It screeched out in agony, a fresh cloud of perfume expelled into the air. Fearing that its noise would alert the others, Copia leaned back with all of his weight. He winced as he closed his eyes and collided his back into the scrawny, winging beast, gritting his teeth as he felt gravity do the rest. There was a nauseating slap as the creature hit the ground, his fall cushioned by its skeletal frame - he couldn't deny that the feel of it protesting beneath him was incredibly _uncomfortable,_ but he tensed his legs with a determined hiss, holding the creature down in place. His arms stretched out until his leather-clad fingers could wriggle their way into the stale soil, enabling him to stay put a little easier.

As much as Aemelia was shocked by how Copia's manner had flipped into a domineering, stern form of defence as he continued to hold the thing in place; she used Copia's stall wisely, dashing across the wearied land towards the sedan. Once she arrived at the tail-gate, her hands scrambled at the latch to get it open - as soon as it was, she carelessly tossed the hefty net inside, set on finding appropriate items to aid them in restraining the creature.

Copia grimaced as it gnashed and struggled against him, hot perfumed-breath blasting into his face through the nest of black sheets of netted-rags. Its brittle, sharp bones dug into his abdomen as its violent protests went on, the coarse ribs jabbing into him with every insistent squeeze he administered to ensure it kept still. He panted out subtle breaths as it winded him, but persisted with his actions, just about holding the wailing creature in place.

He was revolted by the stench and sight of the thing's leathery skin, thankful that he had gloves concealing his hands from the feel of it, and thankful he had ensured that both he and Aemelia had some kind of _unhallowed protection_ against whatever plague the creatures carried - sadly, he could not account for the smell that it would leave on his black suit. Then again, he supposed he had his fresh pick of them back at the Ministry...

"Will you be much longer?!" he called out loudly and intently, his voice straining over the shrieks of the strange beast in order to be heard.

"Be there as soon as I can, Cardinal, just hold it tight." she replied loudly, routing through the various bits of equipment in the back of the vehicle, narrowing her eyes at how out of place everything was. "If only this fuckin' trunk wasn't in such a _mess..."_

Urgency suddenly hit her like a cement wall, her hands starting to shake as that night from months ago flooded back to her - that night she had been in _panic,_ raiding through the contents of her trunk in hopes she would find that blasted _stake._ Her hands set to work, collecting up the things they would need to start the trials of subduing the feisty _plague dispenser._ But, unfortunately, she couldn't stop her mind from lingering on that night that was now many moons ago...

The sound of Copia's effort-filled grunts and the creature's disgusting croaks faded into the background, and she almost swore that she could hear the sound of _rain beating down upon tarmac, beating down upon her back and shoulders_ as she began to bundle up various items in her arms. She could hear the familiar, faraway pulse from the club's entrancing darkwave music, thumping at the heart of a distant, dormant unpleasant memory.

A murmur of her panic was present and she scooped up everything she required quickly, clutching it to her chest with a deep inhale. As she briefly closed her eyes, she exhaled out in defiance of the dread that was trying to consume her, and once she opened them again, the sounds of the rainstorm and the nightclub were a distant memory. A memory of emotions she did not wish to ever vividly recall.

She turned from the open tailgate, thick rope draped across one shoulder, barbed wire grazing across the other. She stepped to the side and took a moment to assess the scene before her, surprised at the strength Copia was still displaying. Though she hadn't tried herself, the creature looked to be a mass of twisted tendons - _pure, infuriated muscle._ His positioning intrigued her and she raised a single brow - his legs were bent and outstretched as he half-sat on the monstrous thing, his arms bent at the elbows as he pinned the thing down by the coarseness of its pectorals. His hair had begun to roam from its usual place, unkempt stray brown strands flicking up, the longer of the strands tumbling down to settle against his clammy forehead.

As his legs tensed and his elbows became more merciless by the second, he raised his torso so that he could lift his head and face her, the sight of his messy chestnut hair and gleaming mismatched eyes - which beheld a maddening _fury_ about them - forced her to stop in her tracks. As the monster thrashed against his weight, he continued to prevail, but kept his gaze upon Miss Vial expectantly, his mouth in a stern line.

If Miss Vial had been honest, his strange expression _unnerved_ her. She'd never seen him bear such an unreadable emotion before, and she could feel the negative energy emitting from him as he glared at her. It was intense and _impassioned_ , impatient for her to reach him. She considered that he was perhaps _upset_ that he had been left with the wretched creature, but she knew it wouldn't have been as simple as that.

So she began walking again, her black eyes latched onto his. Though he had moved his head to face her, his irises looked up to the very top of his eyes, his dark expression paired with his unruly locks and partially soiled suit painting a haunting, malevolent image Aemelia knew she would never forget.

He was quiet, aside from his breaths of anticipation, the creature's cries still irritating their ears. Aemelia dropped the pile of possibly useful items on the ground, tipping to the side in order to slowly allow the ring of barbed wire to slide from her shoulder. She allowed the rope to clutch to the other as she bent down and selected a couple of lengthy wooden stakes - clearly their existence was for other uses, but she decided they would be fit for the creature's trial.

Copia's eyes pierced into her dangerously as she began to place them in a rectangle around him and the creature, stamping the soles of her Oxfords onto the flat ends so they acted like anchors in the dry mud. She repeated it another three times until there was a stake at each corner around them, and Cardinal never took his eyes from her - he'd even moved his head to ensure he took in every single thing she was doing.

"Now we lash it down." she explained quietly, and she actually raised her eyes to meet his, which were blazing at her like they were no longer his own.

 _"Good."_ he praised in an enthusiastic tone, but his expression didn't quite match. She began to slip the rope down from her shoulder, but held his stare, no longer able to hold back her discomfort which was plastered across her face. Before she could ask anything of him, he spoke again.

"We tie diagonally." he instructed directly, motioning his head towards the beast's left arm, then backwards towards its right leg. "It will make it difficult for any movement. But the bindings have to be _extremely_ tight."

She was utterly unnerved how he knew so much about such things, but she was too afraid to ask anything. He released the unrelenting anchor of his elbow in order to grasp the mangled, sinewy gristle of the creature's left forearm, hoisting it upwards and then outwards, until he forcibly held it in place over the wilted patches of grass and flaky mud.

"The rope, Miss Vial." he prompted in a commanding voice, his probing eyes finally shifting from her when she lowered it down to the ground, where he snatched it up before the creature could react. Then his elbow pinned the arm down once again, his other scooting across the centre of its chest so that his gloved hands could firmly and aptly wrap the coarse rope around its wrist and forearm. He didn't cease to tighten the bind for quite some time until he huffed out in irritation and violently pulled the loose rope towards him, ensuring it didn't lose any tension.

"The right leg." he suddenly ordered, holding the tension of the rope effortlessly, raising his eyes from his task to rest upon her face. "Ensure it is bent sharply at the knee."

His short, focused instructions continued until every one of the creature's limbs were bound into an immovable position, the gristle of its muscles straining against the taut tension of the ropes. Copia had left convenient loops at the loose ends of the rope, allowing each one to be secured around the stakes that Miss Vial had anchored into the ground. He was certain the thing wouldn't escape his tethers anyway so hooking it into place was merely an extra precaution.

Finally, Copia raised himself from it and as soon his weight had lifted, the creature thrashed around, shrieking out in a furious, dehydrated rasp. Aemelia wasted no time and lifted the assortment of useful tools - and _weaponry_ \- into her arms, leaving Copia to glance at the writhing creature with simmering disdain.

It didn't take long before their rather blatant trialling commenced. At first, their efforts seemed _futile_. Their first attempt involved wielding blunt objects to batter it to death, but each weapon they used seemed to adhere to altered physics, halting any forceful movement before the creature could receive the brunt of the blow. It didn't take them long to move onto something else - a battery powered _chain-saw,_ which let out a satisfying evil rev as Miss Vial confidently brandished it. Copia had secretly rather enjoyed watching her use the loud tool and thought it strangely suited her. Unlike the blunt weaponry, the saw had actually managed to make contact with the creature, but that was - to Miss Vial's _disappointment_ \- about it. 

Next, they decided to try _burning_ it instead. Aemelia found her inner energy and channelled it towards Copia, who had slid his gloves off and was splaying his bare hands before him. Thick torrents of cyan flames spewed from his digits, shooting over the wriggling monster, Aemelia's eyes widening in hopes that the thing would fry. As Copia ceased to spray out hell-fire, he dropped his stance and shrugged on his gloves, letting out an irritated huff. Even _hell-fire,_ had failed. 

"These things can't be _un-killable,_ surely?" Aemelia asked emptily, shielding her eyes over as she pondered over the possibilities of what they could try next. Copia didn't reply and pushed a few stray hairs out of his face, smoothing them back into his preferred place. He then sighed, smoothly sliding out his serpent-handled letter opener from a concealed slot within his shirt-sleeve, holding it in between his leather gloves like it was a precious artifact. He turned towards her and displayed it proudly, his actions immediately drawing her attention.

"You just... _casually_ carry that around?" Aemelia questioned, fairly concerned when her question caused him to smile - but she was also slightly unsure of how he thought such a small blade could possibly help them.

"Not always, Miss Vial." he answered simply, his eyes admiring the reflection of the sunlight as it gleamed over the edge of the blade. "If I am certain that there is great risk... I will have it on my person. You would be surprised what this little knife is capable of."

"Well if the chain-saw couldn't even _blemish_ it, I'm hardly expecting your knife to do _anything_ at all..."

She glared at him as he lowered into a crouch, regardless of her comment, blowing away a layer of ash - presumably from his hell-fire - that had coated the creature's twisted skin. Now clear, it enabled him to locate an area to slice open - he heard the dry scrape of Aemelia's shoes behind him as he poised the knife in place and he raised his free arm towards her, his hand motioning for her to halt.

"It is fine, Miss Vial." he insisted, his eyes concentrating as he began to follow the shape of the beast's sinewy leg, smiling knowingly as the blade sunk into the skin, his hand hardly applying any pressure as the incision curved to slice across the back of a knee-cap. Aemelia was dumbfounded as the creature began to bleed, rusty coloured liquid seeping out over the netted-tunic as Copia adjusted the angle of the knife to cut deeper.

"That... isn't a _normal_ letter-opener, is it?" she inquired, causing him to smirk to himself as his hand concentrated on the suave movements of the blade.

"Of course not, Aemelia." he responded with a hint of peaked amusement in his voice, his head turning so that he could glance over his shoulder with playful eyes. "My blade could penetrate _anything..."_


	7. It Pursues

Surprisingly, it hadn't taken them long to dismember and incinerate the entire town of the _plague dispensers._ With every creature, their method sped up - Copia would confidently lure one away from the pack and once it was alone, they would weigh it down before dispatching it between them, passing Copia's strange blade between each other, one of them always ensuring it was held firmly in place. After the bodies of the monsters were readily chopped into a large pile, the sinewy parts soon began to cremate, smouldering as Copia's blue flames grew wider and taller, turning the central square of the town into a spectral bonfire.

After collecting up their equipment under the cyan hue, they slung it hurriedly into the sedan's trunk - their carelessness was probably due to how much they wished to vacate the area. Soon, they let out heavy sighs of exhausted relief as they planted themselves in the front seats of the car, taking a moment to lean their heads back against the headrests. Aemelia watched the flickering hell-fire through the rear-view mirror, her dark eyes reflecting the ripples of pale blue.

Copia couldn't stand the turgid silence between them and ignored the fire he had created, uncomfortable with the fact they were still lingering in such a place. He leaned forwards and thumbed the edge of a cassette tape which had been loitering in the vehicle's music player. He sighed and pushed it until it was consumed by the player entirely, a hesitant sound crackling through the speakers. After a while there seemed to be a distinct lack of music and he huffed out in annoyance, prodding the eject button quite a few more times than was necessary.

"We haven't finished yet, y'know?" Aemelia said blankly, her eyes still fixed on the mirror but she could clearly see his desperate actions in her peripheral vision. "I want to check that woodland before we leave. Like you said... there could be the _slightest_ chance that Marie's boy is there."

Cardinal's cheeks puffed out as he exhaled in frustration, leaning back in his seat with defeat. 

"Yes..." he agreed quietly, finally flicking his eyes towards the side-mirror on his right to acknowledge the sight of the crude, sapphire pyre."It would settle me very much if we did that, Miss Vial. I do not want to return to Marie without news of her son. Even if it is... _not..._ what she desired to hear, at least it would be some closure."

* * *

They started to think that their idea of investigating had been a _grave_ mistake within five minutes of arriving. At first, the place seemed like any other forest - and that was exactly how it had cleverly drawn them in. The trees were thriving and colossal, but shaded the afternoon sunlight from them so much, that the cold seeped up from the earth to snake its way through air, knocking the breath out of any living creature that happened to meet its icy grip. 

There was a foul stench of burning, and the more they delved deeper into the wooded area, the more fierce it seemed to become. The smell of combustion should have been an early red flag, but their curiosity overthrew their better judgement. They quietly persisted to trail across mounds of dried, uneven earth and scatterings of crisp fallen leaves, the silence between them heavy due to how focused they were on listening to the surroundings around them. They had expected sounds of native wildlife or the rustling of leaves - but there was _neither._ It was deathly silent and the air was dry of any breeze at all... aside from the gathering of foreboding cold that probed at the material over their ankles.

The coolness of the shade from the spiny branches above had been welcome, but now the trees were becoming more prominent and _skeleton-like_ \- the crunch of the leaves beneath their feet served as a gentle, audible warning. The space between trees was starting to become a lot more cramped and they both started to side-step through the narrowest gaps to progress further, silently pulling the arm of the other if they had trouble passing through. It seemed the wood itself was acting as a natural deterrent, to trap in any intrusive visitors.  
  
To both Copia and Vial's surprise, the tightly packed tree formation had been trying to hide the contents of the next area from them. They could tell from the way the existence of trees suddenly stopped, and they both cautiously strode forwards, shielding over their eyes with their palms as the sun blazed down over them like an invasive search-light. 

The forest clearing before them was eerily flat and circular, the grass singed and stale from the rays of the summer sun. The ring of woodland around them had bent away from the cleared area, like something had once blasted them into such a composition. They kept their mouths firmly closed as they travelled further into the centre of the clearing, and the unusual phenomenon soon made a little more sense to them.

For in the middle of the open space, were two raised patches of soil - they were suspiciously oblong and deep set within the ground, but they hadn't been neatly arranged, for each one was angled corner to corner, like their creation was rushed or had been an after-thought. Despite their rectangular shape, they could have easily been mistaken for mole-hills - if one had missed the _charred pike_ that was thrust directly into the centre of each one - like it was marking a _grave,_ or ensuring it was _pinning_ something in place...

Miss Vial was the first to approach each of them, a frown gracing her brow as she crouched to ground, scooping a hand down to press the bone-dry soil between the pads of her digits. She hummed with intrigue and allowed the soil to scatter through the gaps of her fingers as Copia stood a few yards from her to witness her actions.

He tensed as he watched her, his back straight and his eyes wide with anticipation. He was unnerved by what he was seeing as he couldn't comprehend it at all... he was almost certain that Miss Vial was clueless to what he was observing, so he kept his lips closed, enduring the sight before him. From such a crude attempt of burial, Copia knew that they were present at some kind of disturbed _grave site..._ due to the precautionary metal-clad pike - likely warning off others that were of the same _kind_ \- his guess was that the graves contained either vampires or witches... though his assumptions began to lean more towards the latter.

Glimmering fragments sifted up from the graves unlike anything he'd ever set eyes upon - the shimmering particles surfaced in _droves,_ like there had been lingering remnants of dormant energy tunnelling beneath the desecrated soil. Miss Vial was still too busy studying the feel of the earth to notice Copia's alarm, even when he took a shaky step forwards, outstretching his arm towards her.

Before he could reach her to warn her of the strange circumstance he was witnessing, the last flocks of energy met in a cascading flurry of the usual, familiar black particles, particles that Miss Vial often attracted. To his amazement, however, they did not travel towards her as he had predicted. Instead, they shook violently and collected together in order to become an elegant, dancing form, warping through the dry air like a rippling ribbon tumbling through a delicate summer breeze. Once the silent eruption of particles had ceased, it had rendered the energy to one elegant, thick twist amongst the air, the tone of the particles tainted slightly - the energy sifted from side to side, and what was once black was now a faded scarlet. The shade reminded him of the edges of wilting rose petals, crumpled and everlasting, until each one shrivels up into non-existence.

He watched in quiet fascination as the reddened form ribboned its way towards her, floating downwards towards the soil it had not long evacuated, soon nonchalantly encircling around each one of her legs.

"M-Miss Vial?!" he managed to blurt out in panic, and she slowly glanced over her shoulder at him, the strange scarlet particles siphoning into her form.

"These were witches, weren't they?" she asked sincerely, her black eyes shining with sadness when he sighed and nodded in reply. "How could they just _dump_ them out here like this? It's disrespectful and... _ignorant._ Practising witches are..."

She trailed off and flung her head towards the ground, hiding the tears she couldn't quite hold back. She was usually so good at restraining her feelings, but it seemed like the association of witches hit her deeply somehow. 

"The practice of witchcraft doesn't differ to alchemy all that much..." she resumed solemnly, and his apprehension seemed to ease slightly. "Perhaps if they had been around to see those creatures, the town would still exist."

The tail end of the particles seeped into her as she came to the end of her words, which prompted Copia to wait patiently to see if it had any kind of effect on her. 

"I think their absence was deliberate." Cardinal admitted shortly, his expression darkening as she raised from her crouched position to turn and face him. "Those graves are pretty fresh, no?"

"I think so, yeah. They seem pretty dried out from the heat."

"There will be more." he stated abruptly, his stance easing as she slowly stepped towards him. She stood before him and felt uneasy at how strangely his eyes pierced into her. She couldn't quite place what it was about them that unnerved her so much and rather hoped it would stay that way.

"Come, let us hunt for the others."

* * *

Cardinal led the way through the forest as they tried to find more spots where the trees crammed together tightly - but after some time, it was clear that they were unlikely to find another burial site. The sun had started to set and the yellowy rays had bleached into fiery oranges, causing the shade of the woodland to darken significantly. The forest was becoming harder and harder to explore with every minute that went by, but that didn't seem to deter Copia, for he still marched ahead, hurdling any obstacles and ducking down to avoid the grasp of limb-like branches. 

Miss Vial certainly felt passionate about finding more graves, and of course, Marie's son, but with a severe lack of light, it was futile. Her obedience to follow the cardinal lessened as it grew darker and darker, and his determination only seemed to grow with it. She eventually slowed to a stop, hugging her arms around herself as all she could see - for _miles_ around them - was the bleak reality of hopelessness... _lines and lines_ of inanimate anaemic trees.

"This is pointless, Cardinal." she firmly told him, which caused him to stop in his tracks. He didn't face her but from the way he tensed, she knew that he didn't agree with her words. Without acknowledging her, the leaves below his shoes crunched again, regardless of whether she was following him or not. She held her ground and crossed her arms over her chest, knitting her eyebrows in concern as he grew smaller and smaller, venturing further and further away from her.

"What's gotten into him?" she muttered to herself, narrowing her eyes in bewilderment - she certainly wasn't going to blindly delve into the woods now it was on the approach to dusk, even if it _was_ to hinder Copia from doing so. She knew he was set on finding _something_ for some strange underlying reason she didn't fully comprehend. He was completely out of sorts, and not at all acting rationally. 

She waited for him for two minutes, fully expecting him to have a change of heart... _but he never did._ He had completely disappeared into the mouth of the forest and she widened her black eyes fearfully, reluctantly following the path she recalled him taking. The coating of leaves had sunk slightly from where he had tread and she kept her head down so that she could keep track of the trail, the snapping of branches beside her causing her to instinctively close her eyes.

It was rare that Miss Vial ever felt _fear,_ but she certainly did then, when the cold air crept about her person now that the shadows of dusk were thickening. The lack of her colleague was _unnerving,_ even though he had only been gone for a few minutes - Aemelia knew that a few minutes in any forest could mean they were a whole _clump_ of trees away. She couldn't handle the thought of the two of them being lost _together,_ let alone _separately._ Her breaths shortened and the white fabric of her shirt-sleeves bunched at the elbows as she grappled onto tree trunks to propel herself through the woodland a little bit quicker. The fabric eventually snagged on a sharp piece of bark and she growled in irritation, a tear fraying through the material as she yanked herself away from it forcefully. 

And then, to worsen the situation, the strangest sound caused her to freeze entirely. It was a dull metallic hit, like some kind of hollow container had been struck from the outside. _Someone_ or _something_ was near to her, she was _sure_ of it - especially when the noise jangled out again, only more _loudly_ this time. 

Copia was far, far ahead of her. Equally unnerved by the forest around him. His mismatched eyes surveyed the trees around him like he had purposefully been doing before, but now he was searching desperately for any flashes of vivid burgundy hair through the shadowy nooks of the forest. His heart had sunk when he had turned around to see nothing but piles of withering leaves and bare branches - he hadn't realised that she had stopped following him, it seemed that his determination had blinded him to consequence.

Darkness had crept into full fruition now and every step they took was even more important. 

Miss Vial was scolding herself in her mind, wishing she had never suggested setting foot in the small woodland. Cardinal was turning his head towards every minute sound he heard and the clamminess he had felt from the heat had turned into a cold sweat, his expression of apprehension clear even in the thickening darkness.

Dead leaves crunched beneath their soiled shoes, and the trees conveniently started to rustle, masking any chance of them hearing each others footsteps. It was like the woodland knew of their existence and had reacted accordingly... and so had the creatures that dwelled there, who had awoken now that they had realised the existence of _living intruders._ In the unnatural space of five seconds, the entire wood seemed to loom down slightly, like the withering effects of an entire autumn had set in full motion. Leaves began to tumble above their heads, landing over the ground before them in piles of dry blacks and browns. Dilapidation resumed its reign as the branches cracked like skeletal fragments slotting into place... and it only made the two scramble through the forest faster, hoping they would cross paths with each other soon.

The metallic thudding was much more prominent and layered than it was before, even Copia could hear it now, and strangely, it caused him to slow slightly so that he could scan his eyes around for the source of such a percussive clatter of sound.

The first in the _hunting sights,_ however, was Miss Vial and it didn't take much for her to realise she was being pursued. The sudden gust of air blasting towards the backs of her legs was enough to cause her to run and she sprinted as fast as she could, huffing out in concern when she shot a quick glance over her shoulder. Immediately, she squeezed her eyes shut and focused on her actions, elbowing any passing branches to ensure that they didn't obstruct her path.

The thing behind her looked like it had previously been one of the creatures from the town, and it emitted a siren-like growl now that the chase was in full swing. It bolted after its prey with the purest form of rage, outstretching its rotting arms in preparation of closing in on Miss Vial. Unlike the dormant town creatures, this one was practically _feral_ from the choked growls it was dribbling out and the nimble speed it glided across the forest floor - Miss Vial cracked open her eyes to check where she was headed and did not wish to look behind her ever again. She could just about judge how far the thing was behind her due to the distant, dull thud of a swinging cow bell - which was tethered to the sinew of one of its ankles.

It wasn't long until a small group of them had found Copia too, and he'd begrudgingly fled from them. They reared their heads with animosity and tried to cut in front of him - he dexterously changed direction swiftly and frowned at the confused blur next to him. He was _sure_ that he'd just caught sight of an unusual plastic band around one of the creature's wrists - but such a thing seemed too out of place to be _real..._ it almost looked like the creature had been _tagged_ somehow. He found he didn't have much more time to ponder on that fact as he had to change path again. Yet again, he was successful because they hadn't quite caught up to him, but he ended up shivering with disgust when one of them coughed out a pink mist of perfumed breath over the back of his head.

Aemelia's sprinting was fuelled by her sheer adrenaline, withered leaves flying behind her as she seemed to increase speed now that the jangling of the creature had gotten even closer. She wished for even the _slightest_ chance of bumping into Copia, because she knew that neither of them would have much chance taking on such feral monsters on their own...

Copia seethed with disdain - it was the hatred of having to flee that seemed to propel him to run faster. He could feel the shape of his letter-opener pressing temptingly against his skin - it would have been so _easy_ to whip it out and turn to them - but there was no guarantee that the creature would allow him to have the _first jab._ So that possible consequence kept him sprinting, though from his shorter and shorter breaths, he didn't know how much longer he could keep the chase going.

No matter what, he knew he would be forced to stop and turn at some point...


	8. Family

The sedan skidded to an abrupt halt over the dust drive, trails of grey dust suspended mid-air in translucent twists. Neither Copia or Vial spoke as they flung open the sedan doors, their hands tainted in dry specks of rusty coloured blood. They exited the vehicle and slammed the doors in unison, smears and splats of damp plasma caked over their clothing, their expressions focused and determined as they walked side by side, headed towards the lilac door of Marie's farmhouse.

Despite them both appearing menacing and feeling deeply _empowered_ from slaughtering the forest of feral plague creatures, their eyes held reluctance as Copia furiously pounded a fist against the front door.

The two of them felt like they had experienced an _era,_ rather than a few hours in such a place. Being back on Marie's doorstep was a little surreal for them, especially then, as their outfits were soiled with blood and their piercing eyes anticipated the opening of the door any moment.

There was something _off_ about the two of them, and from the similar stances they held, it was almost like the two were _connected_ somehow. The shadows of the early evening cut across their features and the blood coating them seemed quite _unnoticeable_ in the darkness, were it not for subtle shine of the liquid from the light of the moon.

Marie opened the door after a minute or so, and beamed her usual smile at the two of them, greeting them like she had failed to notice the bloodied sight of their attire and the intimidating expressions upon their faces.

"You are back, Cardinal! I trust that you are hungry, yes? Let me feed you and you can tell me all about what you 'ave found - "

Copia was the first to step into the woman's abode, and eagerly followed her through to the main living area. Aemelia impassively and eerily trailed behind him, the edges of her obsidian irises starting to blot outwards to obscure the whites of her eyes. They both trampled the rusty residue of the plague creatures across her floor and then across a thick, beige woollen rug that cushioned the surface of the living room area. Marie froze like she had _detected_ such a thing and prompted the two of them to stop a few yards from her, anticipating the woman's discomfort in their quiet, disparate presence.

"You... 'ave _soiled_ my carpet." the woman stated in a threatening tone, twisting herself around inhumanly fast to scold them with her hazel eyes. "Don't think I do not _know."_

"Your son is gone, Marie." Copia responded firmly, like he was exhausted by the strange manner of the woman, or perhaps, he just wished to wash his hands of the current investigation completely, after the bothersome culling both he and Aemelia had carried out not so long ago. As much as Copia was himself, there was _something else_ present with him too, and it _wasn't_ just Aemelia Vial...

"He's _gone?!_ You _promised_ me, Cardinal! _Mais non! Il est mort!"_ the mother yelled in rejection, launching herself across the room at him so that she could pound his chest with grieving disbelief. There was finally a break in his menacing demeanour and the shine of sadness in his eyes, yet Aemelia had taken a few steps away from him, adorning an expression of impenetrable disassociation. She casually dusted off her waistcoat and tie - the odd seam on her shirt had torn and was beginning to stretch into an unpleasant hole - as she watched the scene with disinterest.

The woman cried into Cardinal's waistcoat and he was forced to awkwardly comfort her, his arms wrapping around her as his chin rested on the small woman's head of bunched black hair. He closed his arms a little tighter around Marie as he hushed her broken wails of grief. After quite a few seconds, he briefly acknowledged Aemelia over his shoulder, rocking the grief-stricken woman to-and-fro in hopes that it gave her some form of comfort. He held Miss Vial's stare with stubborn concern, for she was staring back at him with her eyes _alight_ with the familiar darkness he hadn't seen properly for quite some time.

The entity wanted to be present with her in that moment - _to witness that Copia had not kept his promise._ Aemelia had doubted him from the moment he had made his feeble vow to Marie and clearly her entity had only shared her lack of faith in him.

Feeling uncomfortable with himself, Cardinal closed his eyes, stroking the woman's back in the hope that she would find it somewhat comforting, but she kept on crying and muttering to him - wishes of the most _irrational_ things - _astral projection, necromancy, ritual offerings, Lucifer's blessing, reclamation of the young boy's soul..._ all of which were the frantic ramblings of the woman's unquiet grief.

"Not everyone can be saved." Aemelia stated emptily, her eyes still boring into the scene before her, the entity lurking ever so patiently in the voids of her eye-sockets. "In fact, your son is not our purpose here, he never _was,_ Marie. We never intended to save your son at all. We knew that if the _town_ was beyond saving... _he_ was beyond saving. And deep down, you certainly did too."

It seemed that Marie had finally acknowledged Aemelia Vial's presence for the first time for the alchemist's words harshly cut into the woman like a blistering blade-edge. She screeched in anger at the audible truth she had heard and proceeded to use strength that she shouldn't have been able to possess for a woman of her size. She viciously snarled and swiped her arms upwards to throw the cardinal away from her - her actions were so unexpectedly strong that he almost fell to the soiled rug below. His mismatched eyes widened with alarm due to her violent actions, but he found no reason to intervene, given that Marie had every reason to be angry at Miss Vial's honest words. 

Aemelia didn't budge as the woman coiled herself into a stance of preparation in the most inhuman manner, expelling out a splitting, siren-like growl - it sounded just like the shrieks that had haunted them back in the forest that afternoon. _Choked and raspy._ Marie sprinted towards the alchemist, drool spilling out from her mouth, as her limbs pulsed with pure anger. Her skin was tight around her bloodshot hazel eyes and she wheezed out in realisation once she had taken in the smell and sight of the blood peppered across Miss Vial.

_The blood of Marie and the blood of the creatures were one in the same. And it only seemed to enrage the woman further._

The woman unleashed an unholy cry and outstretched her arms to circle them around Aemelia's throat, her fingers cracking out into long, skeletal claws in an attempt of attack. But soon, she was forcefully halted, her wide eyes bulging as she gargled in confusion, her muscles tensing as she tried to fight against the sudden physical force that was holding her back.

Aemelia's eyes only grew more hollow as the entity gladly assisted her, her arms limp by her sides as she began to use the stock-pile of energy that had been lying dormant within her to levitate the woman a few inches over the floor. The woman was horrified and seething, but Aemelia and the entity, knew that what they held before them was no longer a _human_ at all. 

Cardinal was stood staring at the scene in bewilderment, but from how Miss Vial was controlling the woman over the floor, he could see the _uncanny similarity_ between the stance of Marie and the stance of the creatures they had wiped out earlier. He certainly knew it was no _coincidence,_ given the odd behaviour patterns of the woman... he was just surprised that they hadn't realised it sooner. Either way... they couldn't risk the chance of another creature emerging from Marie. It was clear - from how _vacant_ her house was - that the plague had left her alone due to the simple fact she was an expectant _incubator_ of such a disease - just like the mournful _motherly cadavers_ that had patrolled the town ruins. Copia couldn't decide whether the creatures were beings that had transformed from infected townsfolk, or merely manifestations beyond his comprehension. Due to Marie's insanity and current enhanced bout of rage... he was definitely leaning towards the former rather than the latter.

"I... I'm sorry, Marie." he muttered sadly, swallowing when neither of them acknowledged his presence. He felt powerless in the situation, and for once, it suited him.

"If you fight, it will hurt." Aemelia warned as Marie silently and erratically began to struggle with the force manipulating her. "If you choose to surrender, I'll be able to extract whatever those things have done to you, and your soul will remain untainted."

Marie still struggled. Or at least, the _creature_ did. There was no humanity left in the woman. Grief had completely consumed her.

"If you do as I ask, I'm _certain_ you will find your son." Aemelia offered sincerely, hopeful that the proposal would persuade the woman to sacrifice herself of her own accord - or her soul would be undoubtedly lost to whatever depressing _abyss_ those creatures ended up in at the end of their life. It was the last bit of redemption that Aemelia could offer Marie, because there was definitely no chance of keeping her _alive._

The woman's struggles only grew more fierce and obnoxious - she was incapable of any response at all, it seemed, and once Miss Vial realised this, she nodded sadly before her vacuous black eyes latched onto Copia. She was considering asking for his assistance... but she couldn't allow him to carry the burden of another death on his conscience. She felt it was the only thing she could do to give the real Marie the peace she deserved. After the countless beings they had massacred that day, this woman would just be another casualty, she supposed.

"Very well, Marie." Aemelia murmured solemnly, trailing her eyes from the unusually quiet Copia to settle them over the woman, who was thrashing against the entity's grasp. Miss Vial took a step back and raised her chin towards the ceiling, emitting a soundless gasp as a recognisable, black shimmer of particles floated out of her mouth.

The trail of energy bolted straight towards Marie and seeped into her form, forcing her into a stationary state before it raised her higher and higher into the air. Copia was expecting something _gruesome,_ but it was no such thing, for the woman merely _disappeared_ in a matter of a few seconds, leaving nothing but a few traces of small black wisps... it appeared that there had been nothing left of the real Marie, just as Aemelia had thought... there hadn't been the slightest scrap of energy within her.

The few wisps of black faded into the aether and Aemelia centred her head to focus on the place where Marie had previously been present. She blinked away the darkness in her eyes... and that's when her actions finally hit her. She frowned with shame and squeezed her eyes shut, holding either side of her head with her hands. Copia was silent but reluctantly decided to approach her - he didn't seem upset at all, but Miss Vial's reaction troubled him. Her breaths panted out like she was only just registering the fact she had killed someone, her bloodied hands were trembling uncontrollably as she obscured the top of her head from his view. 

He opened his mouth in order to comfort her - he was adamant that her decision to end Marie's existence was the right call, but he was still extremely intrigued by the potential of her abilities and he didn't want her to shy away from using them in the future, regardless of recent events.

Before he could say a word, however, there was the unsettling return of the metallic pipe-like shuddering they had woken to that morning. Unlike the times before, it was insistent and threatening - _desperate,_ even.

Aemelia was still too shocked to notice, but Copia quickly turned to face the source of the noise. He certainly wasn't going leave the last mystery _unsolved._ To his surprise, his ears led him towards the kitchen and dining area. His brow furrowed as he listened intently, his legs slowly travelling towards the clattering - which was coming from somewhere around the kitchenette, the thudding and metallic thwacks vibrating through the timber cupboards lining the floor. He leaned down slightly and narrowed his eyes once he had reached the set of kitchen cupboards - he was most drawn to the one beneath the sink and flung it open without hesitation, the curiosity was irritating him.

To his surprise, his eyes met with a _stranger's,_ a hazel set of apprehensive eyes peered up at him - from what he could see, the cupboard seemed to be a disconcerting entrance to an under-floor _crawl space._ Copia stepped back in surprise but grimy hands reached up and out of the cupboard to latch around his trouser leg. He persisted to retreat but the hands grappled onto him tighter and he widened his eyes in confusion when he seemed to be _dragging_ the whole weight of the stranger up from the confines of the crawl-space.

_"Enfin! Enfin! Enfin!"_ the stranger squawked out in elation, clambering up and out of the tight space as one hand hooked from one leg to the other. Before long, a whole human being emerged and flung themselves towards him before he could make sense of what was happening. They raised up to their feet and buried their face in the buttons of his waistcoat, firmly wrapping their arms around him in a tight hug.

_"Merci! Merci!"_ the small girl whispered, thankful that someone had saved her from the horror of the kitchen crawl-space. She had clearly been in there for quite some time due to the matted head of ginger hair on her head and the patches of oil and dirt across her tanned skin. She couldn't have been much older than eleven.

Although Copia's posture was uncomfortable at first, he bent down slightly - as much as her tight grip would allow him - to pat her head in comfort. He was utterly confused at the young girl's presence, but could only presume she had been sheltering from the presence of Marie. He put an arm across her shoulders and continued to stroke her pale orange hair, shooting a concerned glance towards Aemelia. Her eyes were back to their normal charcoal brown, and from the look in them as she gazed back at him, he knew that she was _exhausted_ with the strange place, especially now that they had an unforeseen _child_ in the mix. 

She heaved out an enormous breath of air and sunk down into a crouched position, covering over her face as the reality of what was happening finally hit her.

After culling the plague creatures, killing a human and discovering a unexpected child... they supposed their investigation couldn't get any _worse._

* * *

The young girl was sparked out, strewn across the back seats of the sedan, the seat belt the only thing keeping her from slumping down to lie across them entirely. Her lightly freckled face was obscured by stringy strands of matted ginger hair, more and more strands tumbling down the more her head angled downwards.

Copia was completely quiet for once, keeping his thoughts to himself as he peered at the reflection of the sleeping child in the side-mirror. He wore a solemn expression, his eyes gleaming with sadness at the sight of the various marks and unnatural blemishes over the bare skin of the girl's arms. He could tell the wounds had been purposely inflicted and he squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his teeth together as he swallowed back the ember of rage desperately itching to be unleashed to the world.

He _loathed_ that the end of the case had come to such a depressing solution. _Loathed_ that the D.D.D had been forced to dish out so much destruction. _Loathed_ that they had a living reminder of such suffering... but he supposed she was in safer hands now. The Ministry would take great care of her.

He turned his head away from the window, shooting open his eyes to stare intensely at the road ahead of them, the navy blue of the night sky hiding the beauty of the French countryside.

Although he was seething over the conclusion of the case and the visual indications of the young girl's mistreatment, he knew, as he glanced across to Miss Vial, that his emotions had gotten off lightly. His whole form seemed to relax a little as he softly studied her, though his mismatched eyes held a state of concern.

Although Aemelia's black eyes stared dead ahead, like always, her eyelids wavered every now and then, and a fresh tear would escape, revealing the true stress and sadness she felt. Her grubby knuckles were white from the fierce grip she had on the steering wheel, each crease over her skin still stained with flakes of rust-like blood. Her face had not been spared of such bodily fluid either as a sparse spray of small crimson splotches peppered over her cheeks all the way down to her chin - some had dried over the tattoo across her nape, or had crisped and camouflaged amongst the red wine tones of her hair.

He could tell she was _just managing_ to stay rational, despite the teary leakage trickling down her cheeks. She was silent other than her deep, rhythmic breaths and routinely kept flicking her eyes towards the rear-view mirror, keeping watch of the traffic behind them...

Copia understood she was shaken by what she had been forced to do, and in truth, he _admired_ that she had carried out such a deed... in the bottom of his heart he knew that he could never make such a rash, _sensible_ decision like she had.

He wished to stop the woman he had grown to admire from feeling such shock and heartbreak, but he didn't want to open his mouth and spew out some silly words. So he allowed the silence to simmer as his eyes fell and his head centred, so that he stared down towards his soiled winkle-pickers and mulled over the right thing to say.

So much had happened in such a short space of time and he was only just processing it now. For once, they were leaving a solved case with exhausted bodies and minds, and they knew it was bound to stay with them for quite some time... 

He strayed far away from his bombardment of thoughts and instead decided to concoct something more positive, that would perhaps lighten the mood between him and his consultant. He sighed to himself and took another glance in the side-mirror, his brow furrowing in confusion as his thoughts were abruptly stunted.

He was _certain_ he could see a small set of pale grey hands emerging from the top of the girl's head... he bit his tongue and observed silently with wide eyes. The hands merely combed through the ginger strands at first, and the girl was too lost in slumber to notice whatever was occurring. After a very tense minute, Copia huffed out an enormous breath of realisation as he noticed that the tiny pair of hands had started to _braid_ the little girl's hair.

He leaned towards the door and peered down the right side of his seat, ensuring that his actions were hidden from Miss Vial - though, she probably wouldn't have noticed his actions anyway. He raised a pointed leather-clad finger towards the pair of pale grey hands like he was _scolding a child,_ his eyes gleaming with sincerity. 

_"Don't."_ he warned in a dangerous whisper, which caused the miniature hands to stop their plaiting. There was an incredibly subdued sigh before the hands fell away from the girl and vanished from his view entirely... but Copia's discomfort hadn't eased, it had only _rocketed._ Whatever he had scolded, was now out of sight completely... and therefore, entirely out of his control.


	9. The Unwilling Tutor

Attending summer classes was _encouraged_ at the Ministry. Most who actually participated opted for the more relaxed art-based classes like life painting, film discussion, or the basics of sewing - even Sister Imperator's outdoor _macrame_ lessons thrived with interested Siblings. Most were eager to try anything different as there was nothing mandatory about the lessons - it suited all Siblings to come and go as they pleased.

As a fresh member of staff, Miss Vial had been coerced into holding demonstrations on alchemy after the pestering insistence of Sister Imperator at the very start of summer. Begrudgingly, Aemelia had accepted, at least glad that she could decide her own hours - which were hour-long classes three times a week - and Sister had gladly offered her a demonstration space, which was an old room on the second floor of the newer complex. It didn't fit the sleek aesthetic of the new Ministry at all - from the heavy-set rosewood cladding, vaulted ceiling and raised stone platform at the very back of the space, Miss Vial was sure it had probably been a private sermon room at some point. Rows of pews had been crammed in, facing towards the raised platform which acted as a support for the weight of a large oak display table, a free-standing fire-pit and an off-set wash-basin. She was thankful that the setting had the basic amenities she could work with, she just had to bring her own equipment, often lugging a bag filled with freshly washed test-tubes and jars of dubious substances to every class.

Though she spoke on the very basics of alchemy each time, every class was utterly different. She certainly wasn't going to make it boring for herself so she opted to make different poisons and potions each day - after all, it wasn't like there was a limit to how many concoction she could make... or _discover._ The possibilities for the end of a work-session were _limitless._

After a fortnight, she had the pews of the demonstration room packed with excitable Siblings, who were amazed to get a close-up insight on the workings of supernatural alchemy, but also quietly curious about the character of the usually reserved Aemelia Vial. Word on her classes had spread like wildfire - gossip about how much of an _entertaining_ tutor she was, how _crass_ and _unprofessional_ she was - after all, she wasn't born to teach, and it seemed her cynical self only added to the entertainment of the experiments she carried out. It didn't take long at all to become invested in her demonstrations. Once her spectators realised she was quite approachable and freely spoken - even as she practised her craft before their very eyes - the longer the queue outside her room became before every scheduled lesson.

To Sister Imperator's irritation, students had began to draw away from her classes due to the general rise of fascination for the Ministry's blunt alchemist. And if Sister had actually attended the classes, she would have probably understood why. Each Sibling would leave Miss Vial's classes feeling positive and inspired, but not so much _educated_ \- alchemy was not an easy craft to explain, and as more and more questions were thrown towards her, the dying craft seemed to become more mysterious and complex for the students present.

It was her first class since the investigation in France and she was slightly preoccupied. She arrived twenty minutes before the lesson was scheduled to begin, the strap of a leather-satchel cutting into her shoulder as she dragged herself down the aisle splitting the rows of pews. She heavily ascended a few flat steps to arrive upon the raised stone platform, swiftly dumping the heavy equipment-filled bag onto the wide demonstration table. 

She sighed in protest and wiped the back of a hand against her perspiring forehead, taking a moment to readjust the placement of her plaits. Once she was more comfortable with their positioning, she tucked a few loose strands of burgundy hair behind her ear. She rolled up her sleeves before hurriedly snatching out her equipment, assembling each item to place them in the most convenient space over the display table. From the dead expression in her black eyes, it was clear that her mind was far from concentrating on the class ahead.

After ten minutes, she had set up everything she needed and decided to rest on the edge of the demonstration table, taking a few quiet moments to try and clear her mind. She was still being haunted by her own actions - after all, whether Marie had been taken by those motherly creatures or not, Aemelia had still blatantly _ended_ the woman's existence. What bothered her more, was the fact that the entity within her had _yearned_ for her to do it... she only hoped that a situation like that would _never_ arise again.

Lost to her thoughts, Aemelia hadn't noticed the rising babble of high-spirited Siblings waiting patiently outside. Soon, the chatter grew so much in volume that it was impossible to ignore and she huffed, crossing her arms over the width of her chest before marching towards the door. She had no clue what time it was but she flung open the arched doors with visible annoyance, not bothering to smile and greet the first few eager students. 

She jogged down the aisle with purpose, leaving the new crowd of students to trickle their way into the rows of pews. They chattered amongst themselves in much more hushed whispers as they found a comfortable place to sit and she kept her back to them, briefly squeezing her eyes shut to chastise her mind for the regretful thoughts that were starting to consume her again.

She had no idea how long she had been stood with her back facing them, for the loud creak of the arched doors brought her back to reality, the disconcerting thud as they slammed shut prompting a pregnant silence. She could still hear the odd whispers between the rows of expectant Siblings, a few uncomfortable coughs adding to the awkwardness of the silence.

Aemelia inhaled sharply and narrowed her eyes, confidently swivelling on the spot to face them. Eyes of all colours snapped to her instantly and widened, as she raised a foot up to the edge of the display table. Some Siblings started to giggle with amusement as she nimbly leapt up onto the table, eyeing each unique face she could see with speculation as she towered above them. 

"Right... so first off, there looks to be a job lot of new _fuckers_ in here." she announced loudly, earning a few snorts and gasps as she sunk down into a more comfortable position on the table now she had gotten their attention. "To those that are - my rules are as follows: _there aren't any - "_

She trailed off as the majority of the class chuckled in unison, already wearing amused smiles which caused her to raise a brow. She shuffled her legs to cross them over, already sliding her packet of smokes from the inside of her waistcoat.

"I mean it." she spoke honestly and clearly, noticing the gleaming eyes of intrigue as she slipped a fresh cigarette between her lips. "No rules. If I bore you, chat over me if you wish, I don't give a damn. There'll be no text books or silent exams or raising of hands. If you're after that -" she paused to motion her free hand towards the direction of the doors. " - this is your chance to _fuck off."_

"But we're here to learn, Miss Vial!" someone shouted from one of the pews at the back, which caused some of the crowd to mumble in agreement.

"You _are,_ are you? You're definitely _unfamiliar_ with these demonstrations, mate. 'Cause that's all they are - it's like the cooking segment on _This Morning_ with less smiles and more things on fire. So don't expect to leave with a better understanding of alchemy, it only gets more fuckin' _complicated_ the more you know, trust me."

The majority chuckled again and the person who had spoken before was intriguingly quiet. Aemelia paused to allow for a response but when she was greeted with nothing but silence, she shrugged and pulled out her incredibly light box of matches. 

"So, come on. I know what you're here for. I know you're all probably _dying_ to ask me questions. Fire away." she said brashly, sliding open the match-box with narrowed eyes - there was only a few lonely matches left, and she was sure that she had only just opened a fresh box that morning. She thought nothing of it but frowned deeply, snatching one of the few left before striking it into ignition.

"How long have you been practising alchemy?" a young brunette woman asked from the second row, earning a few sharp glances from the Siblings around her.

"Is that another way of asking how _old_ I am?" Aemelia quipped with a smirk, her eyes fluttering closed as she brought the flickering match to the end of her cigarette. "I've lost count, has to be at least two decades... but it's probably a bit more."

The crowd hummed with interest and she wasn't sure whether they were surprised in a _good_ way or a _bad_ way...

She clutched the burning cigarette between her middle and index finger after taking her first inhale, tipping her head back to expel out a swirling tunnel of white smoke. Her actions reminded the Siblings of a rebellious outcast that was absurdly likeable and from the small smiles on their faces, it was clear they were already warming to her.

"How do you source all your stuff?" a lower pitched voice questioned, causing a contemplative series of mumbles to sound out.

"Well, the Ministry's sisters provide me with any herbs I need, most of the other stuff I require... is far more _complicated._ A lot of the time I try to acquire live samples where I can. But obviously... that can be quite risky."

She took another long drag and exhaled as excited chatter erupted out, like the crowd was revelling in the gossip they could form out of her answer. She rolled her eyes and allowed them to talk amongst themselves for a bit. A small clunking sounded out beneath the table unit she was sat upon and she scowled, swivelling around to shuffle to the table's edge. She heard little scratching sounds and peered downwards, her mouth just about clinging onto the dangling cigarette as she had a good look at the vacant space beneath the table.

She stayed there a moment, her black eyes searching for the source of the noises - as the noise of the students grew louder, she swore she heard something let out a mischievous titter beside her ear and she growled in discomfort, yanking her ear away from the sound. The top of her head hit the desk and she let out a grumbled series of profanities before she reluctantly withdrew from her upside-down stance. She sat for a few seconds to settle her balance, then proceeded to drop her legs down, swinging herself off of the edge of the demonstration table. 

She decided to set to demonstrating, regardless of whether the pews of Siblings were paying attention - after all, the sooner the experiment was done, the sooner she could leave. All she had to do was endure an hour which was better than dismissing the class completely - for the consequences of doing so included Sister Imperator chastising her and she really didn't need that right now.

She unscrewed the lid on one of the jars she had placed to the right of the table, briefly pausing in confusion when it appeared to have been loosened recently. She _knew_ she had _definitely_ screwed the thing as tight as it would go that morning... perhaps her troubling thoughts were causing her to be a little more forgetful on this particular day.

With an annoyed huff, she loudly slid a deep metallic dish to the bit of table surface before her. Her actions caused a few sets of eyes to settle on her but she carried on like the Siblings weren't there, tipping the thick, emerald contents of the jar into the dish. As she reached for another reagent - an ash-grey powder in a rounded bottle - the loud creak of one of the arched doors opening caused her to roll her eyes. She couldn't believe her summer classes were so popular that she was getting late-comers now - she supposed that was something positive, at least... though she really didn't know why any of the Siblings _bothered,_ like she said, it wasn't as if they were _learning_ anything.

The late arrival seemed to stir a brief silence before the chattering raised in volume again, but it wasn't quite so enthusiastic. A few heads centred immediately towards the front of the room as the late arrival's shoe-soles clacked over the slab-stone floor. Aemelia began to describe her actions with boredom and most of the crowd quietened, hanging on her words in fascination of the concoction she was making.

Towards the rear of the pews was a stack of pre-loved drop-desks, most had broken hinges or wobbly limbs and they had been presumably shoved there for storage. A couple still managed to half-stand up, and because of how packed the pews were, the late arrival decided to perch their weight on the edge of one, which caused it to precariously wobble.

He listened to Miss Vial's words intently, crossing his gloved-hands over his lap as he peered over the dozen row of heads, quietly observing her work. He shifted a little and the legs of the desk shrieked across the floor, his mismatched eyes widening in fear of it collapsing beneath him - to his relief, it seemed to just about hold. 

Copia watched patiently, smoothing down the front of his black tailcoat when he sensed that a few more pairs of eyes had spotted him. He could hear the lull in the chatter now that more Siblings were noticing his presence but he drew no attention to himself. A small smile of amusement touched his lips as Miss Vial continued to conduct her class, oblivious to his presence. He spied a few Siblings in his peripheral vision - they abruptly sat a lot straighter in their seats and kept their mouths tightly pursed. Cardinal hadn't any clue that his presence could have been so intimidating to them, but he supposed his subdued, unexpected observation of the class must have had an threatening vibe to the Siblings before him. 

Rushes of whispers spread from the back of the rows to the front which caused him to frown in interest. He had never witnessed such a hectic _supposed_ lesson before, but he kept his eyes on Miss Vial despite the torrent of whispers. 

The hushed words continued to exchange until they reached the front row, where more heads began to turn towards Copia, the sharp gleam of concern in their eyes. A handful of students patted one particular young, robed figure on the shoulder, heads dipping as more whispers followed. It was clear they were pressuring them into doing something - and before long, the figure shook off the hands, raising their palms up in defeat.

"M-Miss Vial?" the young man interrupted with a shaky raise of his hand, his action causing her to freeze abruptly. She precariously suspended the metal dish - which was now filled with a heavily stirred mixture of chiselled ash, beetle fluid and monster guts - over the dancing flames of the fire-pit, sighing with annoyance that her favourite part had been disrupted.

"What is it?" she snapped, furrowing her brow. "If you have a question, go ahead. Like I said - there's no rules or need for any formality here, spit it out."

He hesitated and pushed down his hood, revealing a full head of spiky brown hair, and seemed like he settled slightly for doing so. She lowered the bowl into the fire and carefully placed it in the bottom of the pit, reaching her left arm over to the demonstration table to snatch up her tongs... but they weren't in place she remembered putting them. She took a side-step to the table again with a deep frown on her face, wondering why - now that she looked - every piece of equipment upon the surface had appeared to move. Despite the fact that those items had been right under her nose...

She reached the height of her disorientation when the young man piped up again, which caused her to let out a frustrated sigh. To Copia, even from where he was located at the back, he had spotted how unsettled she was - but the class was none the wiser.

"Do... do you and His Dark Excellency Cardinal Copia... have... " the young man trailed off, warily glancing towards one of the Siblings sat a few places from him. "... have a _thing?"_

Vicious whispers fired from person to person, and those on the rear rows angled their heads over their shoulders, seeing if it sprouted any kind of reaction from the cardinal... but he didn't even _breathe,_ his eyes still transfixed by the confused alchemist.

She finally grasped her hands around the tongs she had been looking for - _which had been unusually discarded over the floor_ \- and wandered back towards the fire-pit, shaking her head with distaste.

_"Really?_ We're really onto rumours _already?_ Fuck me." she protested with a roll of her eyes, pinching the tongs around the rim of the bowl in order to shake the substance within. "No, we aren't. I s'pose you could probably say I was his _carer_ at times... but it's certainly no _thing,_ like you asked. _Cheeky bugger."_

Hushed voices spread through the pews again and her black irises hardened as she watched the reagents in the bowl fold together in a satisfying, melted mess. She blindly reached for the sample spoon to add the final touch that she'd prepared - which had a thumb-sized lump of _white powder_ on it - but yet again... it was another thing to have gone missing. She clenched her teeth in annoyance and decided to let it slide, narrowing her eyes in suspicion when she heard what she thought to be tiny, subdued _coughs and splutters_ from beneath the table. She resisted the urge to look, blaming her imagination as she lifted the searing bowl from the flames to settle it upon the table. 

Relief washed through her as the potion flasks she had set out earlier were in their rightful place, and she carefully tipped the glossy sea green substance into each of the containers. Already, the potion had started to cool, steam coating the glass of each flask as she discarded the tongs and dish into the wash basin.

And now, was the moment every Sibling had been waiting for. 

They all stood in unison and rushed towards the steps, each one of them trying to get their hands on one of the freshly made potions she had made. Miss Vial headed towards the table and snatched up the five or so potion bottles before anyone else could, bundling them up in her arms. 

"Fuckin' hell, you don't even know what it _does_ yet!" she exclaimed with a frown, which soon dropped as a wicked smile crept over her face. _"Fuck it,_ you can find out."

She chucked out the free samples of potion over their heads, arms reaching up desperately in the hope of catching one of the thin flasks. Before long, each one had been caught and most of them huffed out in disappointment, dispersing towards the central aisle. 

Miss Vial watched in deflated reprieve as the class started to dismiss themselves, her eyes closing in exhausted frustration. She leaned her elbows over the table and shielded her face with a hand, oblivious to the trickle of leaving students who were fearfully keeping an eye on the quiet cardinal. Locks of her dark red hair began to loosen from her ears and they tumbled down the sides of her face, her frown only deepening now that the sounds of Siblings chatter faded away.

She felt that today's class couldn't have gone any _worse._

As the last few wary students scattered out of the make-shift study hall, Copia took the quiet absence of others to smoothly slide off of the broken desk he had been perched upon. It screeched out highly and immediately collapsed in a heap over the stone floor - he halted, debating whether to pick it up. His alert eyes latched onto Miss Vial because he was _sure_ she must have heard the loud clatter - but she couldn't have, for she had her back turned to him now. He let out a subdued _"eh"_ as he shrugged and began to strut his way down the central aisle of pews, his manner dismissive and confident.

Miss Vial was seemingly unaware of his presence and was busy tidying away her apparatus, shovelling her partially soiled equipment into her oxblood satchel bag, which was already splitting at the seams with other things she hadn't even used.

Copia suavely hopped up the few steps to the raised platform where his brow furrowed in worry, the rushed effort at tidying decidedly unusual for Miss Vial. He made no effort to hide his concern and gently came to a stop to stand beside her, amazed that she was still oblivious to his presence. She continued to rake the last few bits of apparatus towards herself in swift swipes, huffing in exasperation. His eyes softened as he assuredly reached out towards her. He clutched his right glove around her forearm, causing her to gasp aloud as the sound of glass bashing together echoed all the way up to the nooks and crannies of the vaulted ceiling. She lost grip of her satchel and it slumped onto the table heavily, his worried frown etching deeper.

"Why the rush?" he asked hoarsely, squeezing his grip on her arm gently, like he was encouraging her to go on. "You are so tense, Miss Vial..."

She visibly stiffened and clawed her fingers around the edge of the table - he thought she was irritated due to him startling her, but little did he know she found his presence rather _comforting,_ for once... not that she would _ever_ admit such a thing.

"Sister Imperator will be furious if I leave my stuff everywhere." she explained quietly, deciding not to question his presence as there was far too much on her mind. "Have to leave it spick and span for her night class later. She was _livid_ with me last Friday and I really don't need her croaking at me again."

_"Ah..._ yes, she can be quite _anal,_ at times. The slightest little thing out of order will irritate her very _bones_ \- believe me, _I_ know." he reassured with a small smile, hoping his words comforted her somehow. He slowly released his grip around her forearm, ready to drop his grasp now that he had her attention, but her opposite hand shot up to cover the back of his glove, pressing it back in its previous position.

_"It..._ is good to know it's not only _I_ that sees the _toad_ in Sister Imperator." he joked in a cautious tone, his heart racing at Aemelia's sudden desire to receive his comfort, her hand still firmly holding his in place.

"A fucking _venomous_ toad, that's for sure." she muttered bitterly, sighing with exhaustion. "How's the girl?"

"Ah _yes..."_ he began lightly, clearing his throat as he shifted his eyes away from her to settle on the ground. "She is the reason from my visit, actually... _eh..._ she is fine. Safe, doing well. She is in good hands in a little school not far from these grounds. Most of the kiddies there have family here at the Ministry, so she will always be close to Satan's guidance and protection. And ahm... some of the little ones they... sadly share similar kind of tragedies. We attract a lot of unfortunate, lost souls, you know?"

He paused and sadly chuckled like it resonated with him somehow and Aemelia nodded, gazing at him thoughtfully.

"But... that is not _entirely_ why I am here, _heh."_ he added more optimistically, reluctantly dropping his hand from her shoulder now that she had gently released it. "The girl has been very very silent for quite some time, which is _understandable._ But I received news today that she is slowly coming out of her shell, it seems. She has even said she wishes to be called _Manon..._ I do not know if that is her birth name, but... it is what she wants to be called. I thought... it was best to let you know."

"It was, thank you. It's a nice change to hear some positive news. I'm glad she's managing to settle in." Aemelia replied in a grateful tone, nodding in understanding. "And... it's nice to finally call her by a name... I... appreciate you letting me know. Thank you, Cardinal."

He placed a hand on his chest as he bowed to let her know she was welcome and she let out a shuddered breath. In that moment, she was incredibly tempted to reveal how much their previous case was on her mind. It seemed that the _real plague_ of the place was in practice _now_ more than ever - the bloodied memories stained the two of them, clung to them like the insistence of a clawed parasite.

As much as she wanted to spill out everything... she found herself speechless.

"Is... everything alright with you, Aemelia?" he asked a little more loudly now that it had been quite a while since they had been left to one another's company. "You seem... a little... out of sorts?"

"I'm bored of holding these fucking classes." she admitted with a disgruntled huff, blinking back the threat of tears. "But I can't back out now. I know this must be some kind of _endurance test..._ or way of keeping me from other tasks."

He narrowed his eyes in consideration and held his arms stiffly by his sides, the sharp glints of his irises piercing into her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sister Imperator knows how rarely successful alchemy is, Cardinal. So how can it be taught? Why does she insist on me demonstrating? People only come in here for _free_ fucking _samples_ \- they don't _care_ about the process, I know they don't. Every lesson gets less and less educational - so what does that tell you?"

"That you are right, Miss Vial." he reassured in a soothing tone, knitting his eyebrows together. "Alchemy cannot be taught, it is a _feeling,_ like you said. They are greedy for the final product and see your lessons as some kind of... _ah..._ show."

"Therefore, these classes are a waste of fucking _time."_

Copia winced at the frustration in her voice and placed a firm hand on her shoulder, her eyes darting to glare at him in surprise. She was shocked how willing he was to console her.

"I... _ah..._ I could always have a word with Sister... if you would like?" he nervously offered, his eyes shifting to the ground to avoid her dark eyes, which desperately searched his face for any hint of amusement... but it appeared his suggestion was completely sincere.

"And what would you say exactly?" she questioned in subdued panic."I'm not cut out to be a tutor? I'm a bad _role model?_ I don't even pack the right fucking _equipment?!"_

His grip on her shoulder tightened and he hushed her in a string of shushes, swiftly pulling her into his chest as his other arm snugly wrapped around her, his hug tight and grounding. She clenched her teeth at the contact but found his arms somewhat soothing, like his sturdy grip on her was squeezing out her inner stress.

"Even _I_ am a bad role model, Aemelia." he whispered, his chin settling on top of her head. "No one said you had to be one, you know? No one truly expects _anything_ of you. All there is to expect in here, is a demonstration. From what I witnessed, that is exactly what you were doing. Quite _adequately_ too, even with the shitty question, ah?"

She hummed in consideration and closed her eyes, glad that he was resting his chin on top of her head or he would have seen the content smile on her face.

"And... hey, if you were _my_ tutor?" he said in a strained whisper, pausing to let out a high pitched whistle. "Oh _boy_ would I have been eager to sit in a classroom, _heh."_

She huffed out at his flirtation and gently brought up an arm between them to pat her hand against his chest, which prompted him to clear his throat and drop his arms from her. They stiffly stayed by his sides as he took a step away from her, his exhales shallow and bashful. He avoided her eyes and placed a hand over his chest, bowing apologetically for his words and prolonged actions.

Aemelia turned back around to her satchel bag and resumed sorting out the contents, only in a much more calm manner this time.

"It's funny you should mention that, actually." she said thoughtfully, causing him to step aside and lean against the edge of the table like a cool, rebellious student. "There's been a couple of faces I'm _sure_ I've seen more than once in here. They always pop up every few weeks, and bring the strangest load of questions with them."

Both of Copia's brows lifted in surprise and a wily smirk appeared as he crossed his arms over his chest, raking his eyes over her.

_"Ahhh,_ Miss Vial. You can hardly blame them, ah? You are the _mysterious alchemist_ from the spooky old complex who keeps to herself. You are a refreshing version of a highschool's sexy, sinful librarian, _heh."_

He was just about managing to _dilute_ his words. For the things he was _truly_ thinking of, would have placed him in a situation he wasn't comfortable explaining.

"Ha, _sexy?_ You think that some Siblings of Sin find me... _sexy?"_ she asked with a bewildered expression, her voice thick with cynicism.

_"Ah..._ yes. _Definitely. Absolutely._ I would _gladly_ place a bet on it." he pushed out hurriedly, his voice subdued like he was stuck on imagining something in his mind.

"Hm... now that you mention it, I suppose it _does_ explain a lot of things." she realised, adjusting the placement of a last few glass tubes before zipping up the hefty satchel. "One bloke asked a really bizarre question last Wednesday..."

Copia's eyes were filled with knowing mirth but he kept a small tight smirk on his face, hanging on her every breath.

"He asked about something called... _"summer heat"?_ And kept going _on_ and _on_ about - _ugh,_ long story short - the fuckin' class were in _hysterics_ because apparently it's some kind of upcoming ritual I was unaware of."

Copia's smirk broadened and his eyes glinted sharply as she stared back at him. Her expression was curious but it was clear that she was fully anticipating disappointment to hit soon.

_"Ah... yes,_ Miss Vial. They are referring to a Ministry tradition that has gone on for many, _many_ years." he explained with aching cheeks from how pleasantly amused he was. "Summer Heat is a ritual where the _willing_ participate in sexual pleasures without fear of over-indulging. _Any_ kinks are permitted... so long as the participants are of age and of course, _consenting."_

"Right... so... it's one big, sin-fuelled _orgy_ then?" she summed up bluntly, her face falling into a blank expression which caused him to lightly chuckle.

_"Eh..._ heh, sure, pretty much. It is like Valentine's day with... less _romance_ and more _mindless screwing,_ you know?"

"Sounds _riveting."_ she quipped sarcastically, slinging the taut leather strap of the satchel over her shoulder. "When is it?"

In the flicker of a split second, Cardinal's quiet mischief blossomed into gut-wrenching hope and he had to refrain himself from dropping his mouth open at her question. He hadn't expected her to say anything more about the ritual, let alone _ask_ another question.

_"Wha..._ Miss... _ah..._ M-Miss Vial..."

He stuttered out words for quite some time as heat started to redden his cheeks, his breaths sharp as he nervously studied the ground.

"For fuck's sake, just tell me the bloody date, would you?"

She knew that he was apprehensive due to her question - but she just wanted to know to ensure she _avoided_ the date like the _plague._

"It is... next Thursday."

_"There._ That wasn't so _hard,_ was it?" she said with a grateful smile, her hands holding the leather strap over her shoulder as she began to wander down the steps, her back to him as she headed down the central aisle.

She left him before he could even reply. He was left with a dry throat and shaking hands, his mouth slightly agape at her actions.

"You are right, Miss Vial... that wasn't hard, but... _something else_ certainly _is..."_ he squeaked out faintly, his eyes widening at her as she exited through the arched doors, oblivious to the blushing cardinal she left behind.


	10. Mutual Avoidance

Summer Heat - _a ritual primarily focusing on sexual energies_ \- was in full motion, and the Ministry was rife with all sorts of unintelligible, gratified sounds. Most members of the Clergy were eager to take part in such a pleasure-oriented day of the year, but not everybody shared the same excitement for indulging in others.

Miss Vial was one of the handful that had decided to distance themselves from the loud affair, as through each corridor, behind each door, the moans and groans were boisterous and unbearable to listen to. She was incredibly grateful that she finally had a day off, but she felt it was unfortunate that she couldn't roam the Ministry as she wished. After waking up later than usual, she had taken her time in her dressing herself, leaving off her usual blazer as she felt that the air of her attic had seemed quite humid. 

She had been unfamiliar with how Summer Heat actually worked around the Ministry and with her leather journal, pen and a pair of sunglasses trapped beneath her arm, she visibly grimaced as soon as the door to her attic slammed behind her. Even in the deepest, oldest crevices of the complex the sounds of pleasure were present and it hadn't taken her long to rush away from her room. She supposed she could have just spent a day in her attic, but she already had made a plan in case Summer Heat dominated the confines of the Ministry... and it certainly _did._

The Ministry's gardens were often over-looked by everyone, and once Aemelia had found them, she knew that she had found a peaceful place, filled with fresh air and a pleasant lack of other people. Upon arriving at her destination - thankfully _unscathed_ to the sights of the moaning masses - she took to a wooden swing formed out of a pre-loved bench - consisting of three strips of tree-bark which had been crudely nailed together - and a couple of hinges.

The swing-seat she had found was located beneath a lengthy towering trellis which had formed into a tall archway, the ceiling was coated in twists of vibrant nepeta ivy, the metal framework of the walls entangled in shedding tawny roots and the odd thriving stems that sprung vivid open flower-heads. The shade from the archway was welcome due to the heat of the sun and Aemelia perched comfortably over the bench-swing, placing her journal and pen over her lap. 

She slid on her pair of rounded black lenses which easily obscured her eyes from the world, and also caused her to look quite investigative and astute, even though she was completely off-duty. Now succinctly comfortable, she held the pen like a cigarette between her fingers and flipped open the cover to her journal, flicking through the pages of parchment until she found her desired page.

She sighed with nothing but relief, as a subtle breeze wafted through the long archway, sunbeams poking through the holes in the archway's frame-work. Aemelia had never been too enamoured with nature, but given the ordeal of what was occurring within the walls of the Ministry, she preferred the quiet ambience of the gardens, even the mildly annoying buzzes of a passing fruit-fly.

She scribbled away, hastily lost in her own notes and sketches - time was not of importance to her, and she must have been drawn into her journal entry for quite some time, for the world around her had been midday, yet as she briefly acknowledged her surroundings, it was obvious that it was now late-afternoon, the sun's rays tainting to a slight orange. She resumed her notes, very much concentrating on every word she scrawled down onto the paper in subdued passion.

Completely taken by whatever she was scribbling, she failed to notice that there was a presence of another. A presence that was equally as oblivious as she was, slowly striding beneath the archway of elaborate green leaves - it was clear that they didn't appear to have a clear heading from the way they meandered and took great curiosity in their surroundings. Their arms were crossed over and clutched behind their back in a formal, authoritative looking manner, but as they tipped their head back to admire the height of the ceiling above their head, it was clear that there was _nothing_ formal about them at all.

The scratch of Miss Vial's pen nib grew more ferocious as the oblivious person neared, his footsteps muffled from the grass below his polished winkle-pickers. He had so much time to register or at least notice Miss Vial, yet it was only when he was a few metres from the bench-swing that he noticed her.

He lowered his head down to face the direction he was walking and immediately his leg pattern began to stutter. His head swung towards the direction of the pen scribbling as soon as he finally recognised the sounds around him and he quickly realised that his occult consultant, _Miss Vial,_ was enjoying the solitude of the Ministry gardens... just like _he_ was.

Eventually, when Copia completely registered who he was staring at, he halted, swivelling on the spot to face her. He was surprised to see her there, but he refrained from saying anything to ensure he did not disturb the sight of her, as she appeared studious and focused, clearly captured by whatever she was writing. He merely stood silently, observing her through the scarlet side-lenses of his absurd pair of sun-glasses, which he had perched across the bridge of his nose.

He admired her for a few minutes, amazed how enthralled by her writing she was to notice him blatantly staring at her. It was unbelievable that she hadn't even noticed him in her peripheral vision, for the few rays of sunlight that did poke down from the ceiling reflected unusually upon his person. He was wearing a stripped back version of his usual black attire: a plain black waistcoat with a close shirt to match, the sleeves were neatly rolled to his elbows and the collar was a lot more loose than usual. His matching tight trousers clung to him snugly but the ends had been folded up slightly, creating some room for welcome air. To match, and conveniently, to shade his face from the sun, he adorned a freshly fashioned black fedora, which seemed a little more stylised than its predecessor - every edge and curve of the hat was sharp and angular, suiting the aspects of his facial features quite effortlessly.

Before long, his quiet admiration of her was cut short faster than he had anticipated - she had caught sight of the opaque darkness of his presence for a split second in the corner of her eye. She promptly snapped her journal closed in anticipation of him inevitably saying something, peering at him through her dark shades with an involuntary smirk of surprise. 

_"A-Aemelia!"_ Cardinal acknowledged in a squeak, acting like he had only just arrived there despite having been stood watching her for a good five minutes. She kept quiet and held her stare, allowing him to elaborate some more.

"I... I did not expect you to be here..." he trailed off, already shuffling a couple of steps forwards to head to the free space next to her on the bench-swing. "I hope my presence would not... _ah..._ inconvenience you?"

"Course not. I'm shocked that _you're_ even _here_ to be honest with you." she responded simply, hooking her pen over the curved hem of her waistcoat as she tucked the journal beneath one of her armpits. 

"You are?" he asked, encouraging her to expand on her words with a gesture of a glove as he sunk down to fill the vacant space beside her.

"Mm. With all the encouraged sex and _fuck knows_ what else going on in the Ministry's many rooms... I thought _you'd_ get _stuck in._ Yet here you are, _outside._ Avoiding the whole affair like me. Unless... I've got it entirely wrong? Fuck, I probably _have,_ haven't I? You're probably on your way to an _outdoor thing,_ I mean I was stupid for _assuming_ the gardens were off-limits - "

For once, she was glad of the thick scarlet lenses obscuring his eyes, for he sternly raised both hands in surrender, signalling for her to stop her rambling. Her rambled assumptions were a surprise to him but he didn't want his presence to make her feel uncomfortable in any way.

"Miss Vial, _please._ These gardens may have seen many a seed but only of the _plant_ kind - most know better than to do the deed in these gardens, you know? These spaces are Sister Imperator's pride and joy, so most people stay away, even on a day like today. Maybe if it is _not_ so clear that the gardens are off-limits, _ehh..._ I could perhaps suggest the addition of _"No Fucking"_ signs?"

She snorted at his genuine attempt to form a solution to a non-existent problem and fell further back onto the swing-seat, causing it to rock violently back and forwards. Copia widened his eyes and clung onto the edge of the wooded seat for dear life, but didn't do a thing to stop the violent swinging motion at all. 

"Miss Vial? What has you so _tickled?_ It would work, _no?"_ he questioned in bewilderment, still honestly considering noting down the addition of his prohibited notices before he forgot the idea.

"It's just - " she cut off, a series of snorts stopping her from completing her sentence as the bench-swing finally slowed down to a more gentle pace of to-and-fro. Cardinal waited patiently, placing his hands over his lap, his head tilting in expectancy towards her. Her amusement subsided and she pulled out the journal from her side, tightly gripping it to her chest instead as she let out a deep breath of relief.

"I didn't expect you to avoid the _definite_ chance of _getting laid,_ that's all." she confessed with a sigh and shake of her head, her eyes scanning over the pleasant shaded surroundings around them before resting upon him. "Yet here you are, skulking about these fucking gardens dressed like you're _Barnabas Collins._ Honestly, you couldn't look _less_ like a _vampire_ if you tried."

_"Oh..._ you think it is... a little _unattractive_ of me?"

Her amusement disappeared altogether and she dropped her attention to the ground, her legs suddenly lightly propelling the swing into a much more consistent rhythm.

"I... never said _that,_ Cardinal. You just seem to wear so much, even in this heat."

"Oh... _ahm..._ yes, yes. I see. I am wearing a thinner, _clingier_ material though, so it is a lil cooler for me." he explained, smoothly swiping off his hat in order to use it as a fan, his gloves neatly gripping around the thick opal band as he wafted air towards himself.

"Vampires are very _alluring,_ no?" he added in an accusing tone, his lip curling as he sneered his way into a smirk, a single mismatched eye peering at her through the side-blinkers of his sun-shades.

"I never said th - "

"Ah, but you _did,_ Miss Vial. And you are most _kind._ I know how you detest those beasts, but even you know how _enthralling_ they appear to be..."

The flirtatious strain to his voice made her focus even harder on the grass below their feet, her legs powering the swing a little faster like she was trying to distract him from the awkward proposition she felt was fast approaching on the horizon.

She soon stopped the swinging of the bench abruptly and he took a glove away from his hat to clutch the edge of the bench, the movement of the seat was clearly unexpected to him.

"Why are you avoiding the ritual?" she blatantly asked, sensing something was still off with him wishing to spend the day in solitude. He sighed and he shrugged, clutching at his hat tightly as his other hand moved up to bashfully smooth back his mousy brown hair.

"It is not so exciting for me. Summer Heat is just another traditional ritual to attend. Sure, a lot of _fucking_ goes on but it is very _mundane_ and _robotic..._ you do the deed, and that is that. There is no _sin_ in that for me. Where is the _prolonged pleasure?_ The _slathering anticipation_ that Satan approves of? The quiet, unspoken _sensuality?_ It is _gone,_ I tell you. Every year gets _duller_ for me."

Miss Vial resisted the urge to drop her mouth open at his honesty, internally surprised at how casually he spoke about a rampant _orgy_ with such _boredom._ His passion for the complaints he had with the ritual certainly intrigued her and were entirely unexpected. She had thought that Copia would have been the _last person_ in the Ministry to find a sex-fuelled ritual to be boring - then again, she supposed he found _most_ traditional rituals _boring._

"I decided that I might as well take pleasure in a quiet stroll around these gardens while everyone is exploring each others holes, you know? It is quite peaceful out here, I... I assume that is what has brought you out here too, Miss Vial? Less hyper-ventilating out here, no?"

"Of course. I've never wanted to explore these gardens before with there being so many of the Siblings around. A shame really, it's quite nice out here."

Copia hummed in agreement, briefly scanning his eyes over the garden around them. Eventually, his eyes found themselves upon Miss Vial again, who had re-opened the journal over her lap, slowly resuming the scribbles she had been applying before his arrival.

"You seen anyone else around here?" he asked inquisitively in a quiet voice, wishing to keep up the conversation for as long as possible. Internally he knew that they rarely ever ran out of subjects to bicker about, but for once, he felt a different atmosphere forming between them.

"Think I caught a glimpse of Papa Nihil. I didn't draw attention to myself, obviously - he seemed pretty set on wherever he was going."

"Oh? _Papa?_ Out _here?_ That is very strange, _veeeeeery_ strange, indeed." he responded highly with narrowed eyes, bringing up a glove to stroke his chin in deep thought. "His age does not usually stop him for taking part in Summer Heat. Perhaps his years are finally catching up with him. Those hips probably don't _thrust_ like they used to - hm, maybe I should acquire him an early _retirement gift_ \- some _motor oil_ should do for his crumbling joints, so they are all lubed up and ready to go!"

_"Retirement gift?_ Is he not _already_ retired?"

_"Ehh,_ technically, sure. But ahm... I meant the retiring of _life itself,_ you know? His _exit._ His _close._ His _end credits."_

He paused with a sigh as he looked her over, secretly admiring her behind his thick red lenses as she continued to scratch the nib of her pen against the paper.

"His _death."_ he added morbidly, and she actually raised her head, and though he couldn't see her eyes at all due to the black of her sunglasses, he could feel them searing into his own and he swallowed thickly.

"Yeah... I understood what you were inferring, Cardinal. No need to say it _over and over..._ especially with him being _around_ here somewhere..."

Copia opened his mouth to respond defensively, and as if on cue, the very old man they had been speaking about emerged in the distance, shuffling his way down the long tunnel of leaves and flower-heads. He had his arms extended in front of him, so that he could feel any obstacles that were before him if he ever bumped into any. He veered to the right but his vision kept dead ahead, his shoulder brushing against the side of the trellis.

"So many _bushes_ out here!" he exclaimed to himself as his right arm extended out beside him, the tips of his fingers running over the flat, cool pads of the questionably poisonous leaves. Both Copia and Vial kept quiet, though she had ceased her pen scratching and was gazing over the tops of her lenses, and he was frozen and scrunching his gloves around his fedora like it was a squishy stress ball.

The hem of Nihil's robes rustled gently as he skimmed across the fine blades of neatly kept grass, his shuffling rather quick and haunting - it was almost like the old man was _gliding._

_"Sister?!"_ Nihil suddenly cried out with a pang of desperation, finally passing the two of them - he was completely oblivious to their presence, much to Copia's relief, but it didn't stop them feeling any less concerned about why he was roaming about the gardens by himself - _without the aid of an oxygen tank._

_"Cardinal?!"_ he yelled with a hint of disdain as the sight and sound of him began to fade away into the distance. The old man was unaware of the fact he was delving further and further into the maze of the Ministry's unforgiving gardens.

"We should stop him, shouldn't we?" Aemelia piped up, her eyes lingering on the last spot that they had seen him.

_"Yes..._ we should." Cardinal added in agreement, feeling her gaze upon him suddenly. "But _ah..._ I have a feeling is he roaming to... _meet_ someone in here, you know? He is the only one who would _happily_ break the one garden rule, you know?"

She briefly winced as he turned to face her and she was clearly unsettled by the thought.

"Oh, so _you_ haven't ever broken the garden rule, then?" she wondered with a hint of amusement, easily forgetting about Nihil for the moment.

_"Eh..._ well... I have done _certain_ things in my time, Miss Vi - "

"Yeah, you haven't. I can tell." she interrupted curtly, returning her attention to the journal on her lap.

_"Excuse me?"_

"I'm sure someone will pity you enough one day, Cardinal." she continued, regardless of his playful outcry. His sunglasses gleamed at her dangerously as a ray of sunlight had settled into a new position, poking through one of the gaps in the many yards of metal trellis.

"It really is a shame that you are not a _believer,_ Miss Vial..." he suddenly admitted, causing her to pause and sit up straight, clearly wondering whether she was hearing him correctly. "Then again, I suppose you would not have to be a _believer_ of any kind to _take part_ in Summer Heat - "

She inwardly scoffed in more amusement, returning her attention to the journal on her lap once again. She knew what he was implying but she certainly wasn't going to bite, and knowing that, her smirk grew wider.

"Why do you think I'm out _here,_ Cardinal? I certainly don't want to take part. But I also don't want to sit inside and listen to the walls yelling and moaning at me. Imagine how _off-putting_ it would have been if I had decided to work in the apothecary today..."

"Oh, of course, Miss Vial. It would have been _very very_ distracting and would have put you at risk, I understand why you are not working, I just... wondered if you had ever considered taking part at all? It is not _strictly_ for _worship..."_ Copia pressed, undeniably hopeful considering that he had somehow managed to circle the subject back to where it had been previously.

"Nah, it's not really my thing." she finally answered honestly with a sigh, her eyes trailing across the words she was writing with a slight sadness. "I can take or leave the sex, really. There's nothing worse than the inevitable dissatisfying reach of climax. And surely things would get awkward afterwards? _Surely_ you must have felt _weird_ after passing somebody in the corridors that you'd randomly fucked on this one day?"

Copia's eyebrows raised in surprise, causing his shades to slide down his nose, his eyes peeking over the rims to glare at her with interest. She could see the cogs of his mind turning within his gleaming eyes, and she immediately wished she could retract every bit of her response. She wished she had just ignored him.

His mind was scrambling for replies but all he could do was let out a high-pitched _"aaaaaahm"_ of eager hesitation. He seemed so stricken with so much to say that he struggled to know where to begin. He cut his stalling short with a deep breath but kept his inquisitive eyes upon her.

"It... _can_ be quite strange for a few days, yes. But there is no attachment whatsoever so... no feelings are really involved to feel awkward about, you know? At least, _not for me..._ a few sisters have misunderstood what Summer Heat is about in the past and - "

_"Fuckin' hell!_ I didn't ask for the history of your _experiences,_ Copia." she complained, rolling her eyes before he could apologise to her. "But... I s'pose it beats the sound of what's going on _in there."_

He chuckled heartily and nodded, pushing up his sunglasses to the bridge of his nose so that they obscured his eyes more successfully.

"You are quite indifferent about it all really, aren't you? It may not be your _thing_ as you say, but you have not protested in anger." he spoke hoarsely, leaning back coolly to extend an arm out over the top of the swing-seat. His movement was casual and hidden from her view but it made Copia feel somewhat cosy beside her now.

_"Not what I expected at all..."_ he added in a murmur, flipping his hat up to settle it at an angle upon his head, shading his face with the brim to conceal his smirk from her view.

"What is it that you are writing?" he asked in a small voice, and she briefly acknowledged him by shooting a glance over her left shoulder.

"Notes. Just... notes about our time in France." she explained in an empty tone, and it caused his playful demeanour to crumble completely, his mouth hardening into a stern line.

"You are _venting?"_ he asked softly, his eyebrows knitting in concern as he glanced towards the leather journal.

"Yeah. I suppose I am. Not that anyone will ever see any of it - "

_"I would happily read it!_ I-If you would like." Copia interjected eagerly, coughing to subdue the peak in his voice. He didn't want to seem ridiculous but he couldn't help the way he acted whenever he was around her anymore.

"That would be quite helpful, Cardinal, thank you. I... think they might help you too. I know how much you've done for Manon. How is she?"

He nodded and remained silent for once, internalising his frustration and fears from their previous investigation so that it wouldn't show in his body language.

"Manon is safe now. She will be treated well here. I have been checking in on her daily for any strange traces of those Mothers in her, and there are no signs of anything, thank Lucifer."

She hadn't heard him speak so solemnly in a while and she closed her journal to show she was sincerely listening.

"I will gladly read your frustrated ramblings, Miss Vial. They are certain to resonate with me. I think that is partly why I am so bored of the same old Summer Heat, you know? After what we have witnessed... I do not desire to indulge myself in... pleasures of the flesh like I once used to. It may seem foolish, I do not know..."

"No, it isn't. We both need time to recover. That case will always be in our minds, I feel."

"You are right, maybe we are in need of a good distraction?" he offered, pinching the left arm of his sunglasses so that he could pull them down and eye her without anything obscuring his vision. "Though, of course, _Summer Heat_ is out the question."

"How long does it even go on for?" she asked emptily, quickly flipping another page to resume scribbling down her current thoughts.

"Oh, it is a twenty-four hour thing. It will be over-with by midnight." he replied with a sigh, leaning back comfortably and shuffling a little closer to her side - not that she appeared to notice.

_"Midnight?!"_


	11. Totally (Not) a Date (II)

Miss Vial patiently waited for Copia's return, lounging about over the grass with her open journal over her lap. The court-yard was unusually vacant of any other beings and it suited her completely - the towering walls of the Ministry soared in a rectangle around the large expanse of grassland, pleasantly cordoning off the sounds from the inside. 

She flicked a page and scribbled more notes down, reaching up her left hand to shield across the tops of her rounded sun-glasses, sun-rays poking downwards as another rolling set of clouds trundled across the lucid blue sky. In all honesty, Miss Vial was starting to _enjoy_ the peace and solitude of the outdoors - for once, _all_ of the serene grounds were standable to her, and she wished that the Ministry held such a popular ritual _every week_ if it meant that the locations were free of any commotion.

Commotion returned soon, however, when Copia returned, dashing over the uneven grass towards her in a spry manner. His arms clutched a bundle of white paper bags to his chest, a sharply angled paper straw peeping over the edge of the bag to lightly graze his chin as he moved. 

_"I am here!"_ he announced excitedly when he was only a few yards from her, his steps eagerly quickening before he lowered his volume, coming to a stop in front of her. "Back from the cafeteria... _eh..._ it was real hot and _sticky_ in there - but luckily, there wasn't a _butt-cheek_ in sight, _heh!_ Here at the Ministry we take hygiene _very_ seriously, Miss Vial. We do not... _skimp_ on your _welfare."_

She closed her journal and peered up at him over the tops of her black lenses, raising a brow at the tall food bags he held.

"Other than _you_ lobbing _fireballs_ every now and then, of course." she injected cynically with a smirk, shaking her head as he began to slowly lower himself down to sit on a patch of grass beside her. The paper of one of the bags crinkled loudly as he squeezed it within his leathery grasp, a sly smirk of amusement across his face. 

"Hey... _shush,_ I don't go speaking so freely of _your_ secrets, do I, Miss Vial?" he whispered hurriedly with feigned concern, carefully handing her one of the bags. She took it politely and peeked inside, sniffing in approval at the heated scent of a lasagne-baguette which jetted up into her face.

"Oh _please,_ no one can hear a thing over here." she assured, raising a brow as she lifted out a freezing cold (and _luminous blue)_ slushy drink - it was clear that she hadn't expected such a thing from her quizzical expression. She couldn't help being reminded of her own craft as she studied the crystallised chunk of blue ice, which bulged against the thin glass of a slender drinking jar - she felt like she was about to consume one of the _living reagents_ from one of her apothecary shelves, rather than a refreshing iced drink.

Copia settled down next to her in a cool, casual sprawl - his lithe legs were outstretched over the free grass beside him, a single elbow holding up his weight as his other hand dipped into his take-out bag.  
  
"Especially if they're stuck inside some... _panting nun."_ Aemelia added shortly, her tone lacking in emotion as her mind was clearly too fascinated with the contents of the blue slushy.

Cardinal chuckled with amusement and lifted a triangular slice of steaming focaccia bread from the inside of his bag, already eagerly taking a generous bite. He chewed slowly and observed her with a small, expectant smile as she raised the tip of the paper straw to her lips. She cautiously took a sip and as soon as the freezing cold taste of raspberry hit her tongue, her face scrunched up from how overpowering it was. Copia chuckled impishly at her reaction and she immediately set down the cold jar on the grass in front of her, clenching her teeth together.

"Although I'm ... _grateful_ for something cold, could you at least _warn me_ , next time?" she complained, opening her mouth to stick out her tongue, which was now stained a vivid teal.

_"Ahh..._ but that would be _boring,_ wouldn't it, _Cipolletta?"_ he teased.

"Chip-a _what_ now? Did you just call me a fuckin' _chip?"_

He blushed and swiftly cleared his throat, lowering his half-bitten food back into the paper bag. He couldn't believe that her presence was causing him to feel so cosy so quickly... it seemed his inhibitions weren't so _sharp_ today.

_"No no no!_ I did not... I ... " he defended hurriedly, clearly worried that he had ruined the pleasant dynamic between them. "It... it is something that _slipped out,_ my tongue is hard to... _control_ sometimes, you know?"

She squinted at him in suspicion, but it wasn't long before they were chatting away again, with Copia scanning over every one of his planned sentences - his words were often suspended in his mind for quite some time, he really didn't want to allow anything else to slip out...

After brightly staining their tongues and filling their stomachs with cafeteria food, they laid on their backs, their hands supporting the back of their heads as they laid beside one another. To any stranger, the scene of the two of them would have looked like they were merely two companions cloud-gazing. Indeed, their arms pointed out towards things above them, and they would snort in unison. But neither of them were innocent enough to partake in cloud-glazing - for what they were doing was a little more mischievous.

"Alright, alright... _ahm..._ how 'bout... _that one?"_ Copia asked, blatantly gesturing to one of the windows that made up one of the walls of the courtyard. 

"No idea." she responded, wrinkling her nose to readjust her sun-glasses without the help of her hands _"Priest kink?_ I mean, that's probably a bit obvious - that _is_ where the Sisters of Sin reside, right?"

He beamed a wicked smirk and tilted his head towards her - his eyes gleamed through the scarlet lenses of his shades as he watched her thoughtful expression.

"It is most common, yes." he confirmed with a wobble of amusement in his voice, the corners of his mouth curling into a proud smile. "And I can - _ahem_ \- attest to that."

_"Fantastic."_ she stated emptily, slowly glancing towards him. She stiffened her movements when his eyes immediately flicked to return her stare and he intensely gazed at her, not uttering another word.

_"What?"_ she questioned, her eyebrows furrowing into a bewildered frown. "What are you looking at me like that for? Do you want some bloody _award_ or what?"

He stayed quiet and leaned onto his left elbow, shuffling himself towards her so that he could lay a lot closer to her. Her eyes flinched at his proximity but she made no effort to move away, even when he proceeded to inspect her features intently, entirely taken with her now that they had some space away from the rest of the Ministry.

"What about that one?" she suddenly asked, averting her gaze towards one of the tall walls towards the very left of the courtyard. "I'm not sure where that room even is... I'm not sure I've ever been to that part of the Ministry yet."

Copia raised himself up slightly to peer his eyes over her, following her line of sight. The curious expression he had been wearing dropped instantly and became something unreadable, even more so when his eyes trailed back to settle upon her. The inhibitions he had been so careful to consult, were no longer present it seemed, for his mouth opened before he gave his mind any chance of evaluating his words.

"I know that it is a large room." he murmured truthfully, his voice raising just over a whisper, which instantly caught Aemelia's attention. His voice sounded unlike anything she had ever heard from him before, she was almost shocked that it was even coming out of him. It was rich and hoarse and laced with something she wasn't sure she recognised. 

"Befitting of a _library,_ maybe?" he suggested with the same strange, distant tone of voice, his eyelids shading over his irises as he succumbed to fascination. "With... lots of... tall bookshelves.That you could... _hide..._ _behind and - "_

Her unimpressed scowl caused him to cut off his words, but he didn't shy away from her cold black irises, which pierced into him with hardened perplexion.

"... or maybe... " he continued, his consideration for any kind of consequences absent. "... it is a room filled with a sofa, or a fire-place, with a... very inviting _bed,_ who knows?"

"I thought we were playing "guess-the- _kink"_ \- not "guess-the- _furniture"_ , Cardinal." she snapped dryly, her expression darkening from how unimpressed she was with his attempt at flirtation.

"Maybe I was not playing _that_ game, Miss Vial." he implied with the smallest hint of amusement, though his eyes were completely sincere. "Perhaps I wanted to create a new one for us instead, ah?"

She kept quiet and the suggestive intensity he'd been channelling seemed to ease slightly, his eyes opening a little more so that he appeared a lot more coherent. However, she could tell that he was still incredibly lost to fantasy - and the _potential_ of scenarios she hadn't the faintest knowledge about - from the way his lips were lightly parted.

"We could always... _visit_ that room, if you are curious?" he offered quietly, her black eyes boring into him like honed coffin-nails. She wondered whether he would ever give up the pointless pursuit of her - little did she know, the pursuit was exactly what filled him with immense _enjoyment._

_"I'll pass."_ she responded sternly, which caused his amorous venture to end abruptly. He sharply averted his eyes to the grass they laid upon and a small, wistful expression appeared over his features. 

"Ah, right, right. All of the... _fucking noises,_ I forgot, _heh heh!"_ he chuckled out in an accepting tone of defeat, sighing in disappointment. 

"We could always just get out of here for a few hours." she considered, tipping her head back to peer up at the dimming light of the early evening sky. "There's a place that I've always wanted to visit nearby... figured we could check it out." 

"Just... _me and you?"_

She nodded quietly in response, causing him to quickly clear his throat. She sat up with a wry smile, wondering why he had assumed that there could have been others involved - after all, even with the tutoring sessions, she still remained the reclusive resident alchemist.

"I would be delighted, Miss Vial."

* * *

There was already something strange about two fully grown adults piling out of a black sedan to rush towards a video-games arcade in the height of summer. But when one of them looked like _The Omen_ starring _Scar-Face,_ and the other looked like they buried _corpses_ for a living - it was no wonder that the local citizens had to look twice.

As soon as Miss Vial had disclosed that she wished to visit a nearby arcade, the cardinal had fidgeted over the passenger seat like an exuberant child who had picked up the scent of a candy cane. When the sedan had finally pulled up at the curb-side, the doors flung open - the two of them were in enthusiastic anticipation of being able to pass the time without any reminder of Summer Heat looming over them. 

Their paces slowed once they approached the open front of the place, the neon strip-lights gleaming in their excitable eyes. It was a glaring reminder of eighties futurism amongst the normality of an isolated Italian town, and though many locals thought it was an eye-sore, any outsider was immediately drawn to the hypnotic nostalgia of such an establishment.

"How did you come to know of this place, Miss Vial?" he wondered, his mismatched eyes glossy with amazement as they trailed over the dazzling pulse of the strip-lighting. "I have lived near this place for _years_ and did not know about it... I would have visited sooner if I had known!"

"A Sibling recommended it to me."

Copia narrowed his eyes speculatively, halting abruptly before proceeding to stride again. It was like he'd had to pause to fully comprehend the meaning of Aemelia's words. 

"Oh _really?"_ he asked highly, unable to hide the trace of envy coating his vocal chords. "Which one?"

"Don't know, didn't really catch his name to be honest with you." she replied emptily, her attention far too focused on the array of flashing arcade machines to really care for any conversation. 

_"Good."_ he muttered wickedly, each of his strides a little perkier as he sped up his pace to catch up with her.

_"What?"_

_"Nothing, nothing..._ ahm... how long have you been coming here?" he quickly inquired, not wishing to draw any attention to his momentary lapse in self-awareness.

"I haven't. I just thought it would be interesting to experience a sensory overload that doesn't involve any unnecessary moaning or bodily fluids." 

_"Scusi..._ we are doing _what_ later?!" he blurted out with pleasant surprise, cautiously following her movements as she stepped into the threshold of the arcade's open, lively atmosphere. 

"Have you had a hearing test recently, Cardinal? 'Cause I think you might need one." she taunted mirthfully, raising her voice significantly now that they were under fire from a mishmash of roaring video-game noises and layer upon layer of various melodic synth arpeggios. It was like an eighties-fueled wet-dream with the bombarding sounds and ricochet of violet and magenta lighting - but somehow it was preferable to the obnoxious ambience of the Ministry they had not long departed.

Sounds they had long forgotten bleeped and bounced about from machine to machine as they stepped further into the arcade's atmosphere. The ceiling was unusually low and clad in metal sheeting which reflected the unique blue and magenta hues of the mood lighting. The carpeting hadn't been replaced in a long time, for the purples and greys of its geometric pattern had worn away from how many feet had walked upon it. Despite the retro aspect of an amusement arcade, the place was still bustling with different groups of people - children ran riot as they bolted towards a machine they'd never seen before, parents stood awkwardly as they appeased their shrieking offspring, college students marvelled over the video-games flashing before their eyes and moody teenagers clung to the darker corners of the place, hoping to be ignored as much as possible.

Yet even with the array of social groups there, Copia and Vial still stuck out like sore thumbs. As they explored the place further, there seemed to be more and more activities than they had been expecting and consequently, more people too.

A small group of kids were surrounding one of the arcade's many immersive shooter games, the younger members of the group loitered around it awkwardly as they chattered to one another excitedly. The eldest two lounged across the plastic seating of the gaming unit to very much ensure that that particular game was _theirs,_ even though it was clear they had no intention of playing the game at all. From how casual they were sitting, they probably did such a thing regularly and that particular arcade game was their preferred hang-out. 

Upon both Copia and Vial passing the group, however, the eldest kids shifted across the seats, their necks stretching out of the roofed arcade-machine to stare at them both with wonder. The game's demo screen flashed in vibrant bluish hues across their olive skin, their sea green eyes wide as the younger kids followed their line of sight. 

The chatter subsided as they watched the spooky-looking pair with morbid fascination and intense curiosity. The two adults were in discussion in front a token machine, clearly planning on spending some time at the arcade - it was rare that the place received complete _strangers,_ so their presence was riveting to the usual arcade dwellers. Poorly subdued murmurs of suspicion erupted between the kids and Miss Vial actually paused what she had been saying to glance over her shoulder towards them.

One of the oldest kids - who couldn't have been any older than fourteen - was still leaning out of the arcade machine in an unnatural position, but flinched at the alchemist's dark eyes. He started to shake nervously and before he knew it, he was tumbling towards the ground. Luckily the boy shot out an arm to prevent the fall and he immediately stood, dusting himself down as he bravely tried to meet her gaze again - but she had already turned away. 

Oblivious to the several pairs of eyes upon them, Copia was busy sliding a hand into his waistcoat, narrowing his eyes in deep thought as he felt around for his wallet. Aemelia crossed her arms over her chest, raising a brow at his actions.

"I can get this, Cardinal, honestly - "

_"No no no!_ Absolutely not, Aemelia. I am paying, I _insist,_ ok? Just... _gimme a sec,_ I know I have my wallet in here _somewhere."_ he expressed firmly, his eyes glaring once he realised that something else occupied its usual place. His glove clutched around it and he slowly spun around to face away from her, ensuring that she wouldn't be able to see whatever it was. 

He scowled with seething comprehension as he fished out the item and squinted at it in disappointment. It was a familiar, crinkled - and heavily _chewed_ \- packet of cigarettes... and he knew that they were the favoured brand of Aemelia Vial. He sighed, shaking his head in disapproval as he studied the packet before him.

_"Nekid..."_ he muttered bitterly beneath his breath, squeezing the packet with his clenched fist. "... you little _shit."_

Despite having the rational option of admitting he had misplaced his money, he really didn't want to seem like anything less than _cool and prepared_ to her, so he cleared his throat and suavely spun around, wearing a neutral expression as he tightly clutched the packet of cigarettes behind his back.

"It seems that I only have _notes..."_ he lied with a humble smile, and raised his free arm up to halt her from offering to pay again. "I will... be right back, ok?"

He backed away from her in the strangest manner and it seemed to awkwardly last the longest amount of time. She stared at him with a bewildered frown, and he wore a wide-eyed look of alarm like he was concerned about backing into an obstacle any minute... but he kept going until he was out of sight. Once an entire row of single-player arcade machines obscured him from view, he ducked down and surveyed the area, like he was forming some diabolical scheme of finding money somehow.

His actions seemed ridiculous and futile for a while, until his mismatched eyes spotted a pair of terrified sea green eyes glaring at him from a slayer-simulator, which was located on the aisle ahead of him ... unfortunately for the eldest kids, their young underlings had not long abandoned them and Copia had a clear line of sight of them. 

An undeniably immoral but reliable scheme quickly formed as he tightly grasped the cigarette packet to his chest and kept his eyes firmly on the teenager. He angled his fedora over his eyes in a confident manner and stalked his way through the large clumps of arcade games, keeping his head low so that Miss Vial wouldn't spot him - the last thing he wanted was her seeing him now.

The kid in Copia's sights froze and patted the other boy beside him frantically, sweat beading over his forehead. He let out a series of sharp curses and couldn't tear his eyes away from the sharp-dressed stranger, though he was just about managing to scramble towards the boy beside him now. Even though the kid tried his best to push his friend out of the way to escape the gaming unit, Copia's strides sped up slightly until he silently came to a stop beside the arcade game.

He stooped down slightly and peered inside, wearing a confused frown when he notcied that the two boys had tightly backed themselves over the opposite seat in some kind of pathetic attempt of defense.

"Ciao." he greeted simply with a short wave and approachable tone, causing them to glare at him like he was some kind of horrific _monster._ He politely awaited their response but they continued to cower from him. He shrugged and sighed, outstretching an arm towards them to shake the half-packet of cigarettes side-to-side.

_"Fumi?"_ he asked hopefully, and the fear over the boys' faces turned to deflated confusion - clearly they had been expecting something else entirely... after all, even kids had suspicions of the _vampires_ that stalked the streets of remote towns and cities. 

"We speak English, _dip-shit!"_ the one furthest away yelled defensively, the voice thick with an Italian accent and muffled from the other boy, who was still squished against him with fright.

"Oh... that's pretty _cool._ So do I... _lucky,_ huh?" Copia replied with a relieved chuckle.

_"Shit..."_ the talkative boy murmured, clearly annoyed that he no longer had a reason to ignore the sharp-dressed stranger.

"I will... _ah..._ give you these smokes if you help me out, what do you say?" Copia offered, taking a step back because he realised he probably seemed a little too eager with his proposition.

"I... guess so." the more timid boy replied cautiously, his voice wobbling as he shuffled away from his friend. 

"Good, good..." Copia sighed out with comfort, smiling gratefully. "You seen the chick I was with earlier?"

Although the teenagers still had an air of caution, their body language settled and they nodded frantically at his question, greedily eyeing the silver sheet-plastic on the edge of the packet of smokes. 

"She's really... _really_ fuckin' hot and... I _really_ want to impress her, you know?"

_"How much?"_ the one farthest away asked with a crumpled smile, the other one blushing from ear to ear.

After that, it wasn't long before a deal was agreed upon and a heavy pile of coins replaced the heavily worn packet of cigarettes. Copia left the kids as quick as he'd introduced himself and they awkwardly waved him goodbye as he skulked away with the coins tucked against his chest.

"Don't talk to strangers, kiddos. And definitely _don't_ do drugs..." he hollered over his shoulder, pausing in his tracks once he looked ahead of him and realised what he said.

"Ah _shit."_ he cursed at himself, before shaking his head of any responsibility to carrying on moving, eagerly scurrying his way back towards Miss Vial. He rushed towards her as soon as she was in view and it looked like she hadn't moved from the spot as she was still in the same stance she had been in when he had left her.

"How'd you manage that?" Aemelia asked, eyeing the hefty pile of coins he held to his chest. "I didn't think there was any note exchanges around here... at least not any that I could see from here, anyway." 

_"Ahh..._ do not worry, Miss Vial. It is... my _mystique."_ he said with a wink, which caused her to shake her head in amusement. He proceeded to balance the coins against him as he squatted down slightly, scraping up a few of them to push them into the token machine.

"If we do not use all of it we can always save them, you know." he suggested, hurriedly slotting in more and more coins so that they could just get on with the fun activities.

"For _what?"_

"Coin goblins." he replied hurriedly and thoughtlessly, shovelling the last small pile of coins into the inside of his waistcoat for safe-keeping. He pressed a large green button on the right of the token machine and a clatter of plastic yellow circles were spat out from a funnel at the bottom. 

_"Coin goblins?_ What the _fuck_ are coin goblins?"

As he was about to crouch down and collect up the tokens, Aemelia reached towards him and swiped off his fedora. He glared at her like she'd slapped him but his expression soon softened when she flipped it upside down and lightly pushed him out of the way, gathering the yellow tokens into the deep space of his hat. He tried to refrain from smiling at her actions when she handed his hat back, gently taking it from her.

"Enough, Aemelia, you are putting this off now. You must show me what you are _capable_ of..." he challenged playfully, inept at hiding the smirk over his lips. "Come, let us find an exciting game to play, ah?"

"Wow, I hadn't expected you to be so _competitive,_ Cardinal."

His smirk grew as he led the way through the boisterous barrage of various sound effects and synth music, his shoulders tensed up to his ears as he clutched his hat full of tokens to his chest.

"Oh, I used to be quite the competitor when I was younger." he went on, continuing the topic of conversation whether she wanted him to or not. "That is why I wished to prove myself as a cardinal, you know? And ah... it has made a lot of people pissed off, but it makes me smile to know that I earned every bit of it, _heh._ I also used to foolishly compete over _lovers_ with the same approach quite often too... "

Aemelia could tell the latter was a half-truth but kept quiet, sensing he had said such a thing so that she would sway onto the subject of romance and the _cringe-inducing_ art of seduction techniques. The more she could steer the conversation away from that, the better.

Luckily, he seemed to ignore her lack of response and spewed out a subdued gasp, hurrying his strides like an enthusiastic child when he spotted a two-player car racing simulator. He kept quiet and leaned against one of the plastic rally seats, gesturing a hand towards it hopefully.

She was still slowly approaching him as she didn't appear to be quite so excited and she crossed her arms over again, quietly refusing him with a shake of her head.

"Ah shit, _c'mon!_ I can show you my driving skills, ah?" he exclaimed out in a persuasive, amused tone.

_"Confident,_ are you?" she challenged suddenly, dropping her arms by her sides as she snatched the hat full of tokens from his grip.

"Ohhhh _absolutely!"_ he boomed out with a peppy expression in his eyes as he loudly patted the plastic seat behind him with a single leather glove. "I have a _veeeery_ good feeling about this game, you know? I like to leave my mark on the leader-boards."

"I'd like to see you try." she quipped with a deadpan expression as she pushed by his shoulder with a couple of tokens between her fingers.

"You... _would?"_ he questioned with mild alarm, his face bewildered as he watched her slot a hefty amount of tokens into the arcade machine. In that moment of observing her, his competitive streak seemed to awaken to the point he realised that he wanted to try his hardest to impress her... he appeared to be naive to the fact that impressing her was a complete _rarity._

The monitors flashed him out of his thoughts and Miss Vial hurriedly made her way to the farthest seat away. He cleared his throat and stroked his flat palms down the front of his waistcoat as he nonchalantly slid over the seat beside him. The game screen continued to stay idle, awaiting the presence of both players - Miss Vial was in position, with her hands tightly gripping around the incredibly light steering wheel and her feet poised over the pedals below, the hat full of tokens balanced across her lap.

Copia had managed to get as far as placing his gloves around the steering wheel but he found that there wasn't much space for the long tips of his cuban-heeled shoes. He fidgeted to try and get his feet in a better position over the pedals and Miss Vial couldn't bring herself to look at him, pessimistically scowling at the strobing message of _"Press the red button to begin"_ that consistently emerged over the empty black of the screen.

_"Aha!"_ he finally yelled out in victory, turning the tips of his shoes towards each other to finally fit his feet over the pedals. "Ready when _you_ are, Miss Vial!"

She outstretched a hand towards a large red circle in between the two of them, her black eyes instantly drawn to the position of his legs. His knees were facing inwards and she wasn't sure _what_ his feet were doing but it caused her to snort in amusement.

"You look like a fucking _inverted penguin..."_ she choked out, snorting out a lot more as she slammed the heel of her palm over the start button. He opened his mouth to reply to her but the loud noise of the game captured his attention immediately - they shuffled into place, their eyes glued to the screens as they spun the wheels to the right to select the kind of vehicle they wanted to race with. Due to the edgy, dirt-track look of the video game, Miss Vial kept her choice sensible and chose the option that favoured grip over speed. Whereas Copia slammed the heel of one of his shoes onto one of the pedals, locking in the most colourful vehicle that just so happened to have the most acceleration on its stats. 

The screen quickly switched to that of an off-road mud circuit and Aemelia narrowed her eyes in focus, Copia slowly nodding his head in complete over-confidence. After a countdown from three, the two of them shot off on screen - but it couldn't compare to the sight in reality. Their limbs thrashed against the pedals and steering wheels like their lives depended on it - but it was clear Copia was having more difficulty than she was. His winkle-pickers left very little room to work the pedals properly and he yelped out a choked squeal of apprehension when his eyes caught sight of a vivid orange _"Player 1"_ marker creeping onto the left of his screen.

To his dismay, after finally settling into the unnatural position he was sat in to aptly operate the metal pedals... his eagerness to slam down on the accelerator caused his car to spin out and tap a tree - which soon escalated into his vehicle exploding into a heap of scrap metal and pixelated flames.

_"I... I do not believe it."_ he murmured quietly when the bold, obnoxious _"Game Over_ " screen overlayed the depressing sight of his wrecked vehicle in gloating block capitals.

Meanwhile, Miss Vial was smoothly twisting the wheel to-and-fro, concentrating deeply even when he sharply glanced towards her with a look of disappointed awe. He kept quiet for the rest of the next few laps but soon grew bored, so he reached over towards Aemelia's lap and snatched up his fedora, hugging it to his chest. He then untangled himself from the cramped space of the racing car seat to stand up and circle around the back of it, observing her screen as he lurked behind her. His actions caused her to shoot a quick look over her right shoulder - and this simple lapse in concentration caused her vehicle to spin out, just as his had. She had an indifferent expression on her face as the _"Game Over"_ screen flashed up and she shrugged, happy that she had at least outlasted the cardinal.

"You like _air hockey?"_ he questioned before she had even exited the seat, clearly eager to leave the vicinity - he didn't like to linger if he hadn't been successful, it seemed. 

_"I - "_

_"Good, good!_ Let's go, _c'mon!"_ he butted in hurriedly, a leather glove beckoning her to follow him now that she had slid out of the racing seat.

Copia led her by quite a few aisles of various different arcade machines until they were soon surrounded by a much more relaxed area with a lot more open space. There were half a dozen air hockey tables and most of them were occupied with teenage couples or spry ten-year-olds - so naturally, when Copia and Aemelia arrived at the last free hockey table, the excitable noises from the rest of the tables quietened off slightly.

Miss Vial rounded one end of the table and reached out into the centre of the smooth surface of the table, clutching onto a stray paddle. Copia bent down slightly to thumb in a couple of tokens, his legs shuffling inwards tightly to hold his fedora in place over the carpet.

"I will go easy on you, _ah?"_ he teased with a wink as he playfully peeked over the edge of the table's railings at her, grabbing hold of the puck the machine spat out. He stood up straight and placed it out on the slippery surface, latching a firm hold of the nearest paddle. 

Miss Vial's silence caused his heart to pound and he administered a vicious swipe towards the puck. It travelled graciously towards her and she struck it twice as hard in defence, which sent it flying towards his goal. The puck clattered loudly as the machine swallowed it up and Copia rolled his eyes and let out a huff, retrieving it from a slot on his end. It went on like this for some time, but he certainly managed to get his fair share of goals - but by the end, he wished he'd never attempted to try and defend his side of the table for he could feel every thwack of the weighted puck across his knuckles, even with the cushioned barrier of his leather gloves. After clenching his teeth and emitting little subdued squeaks of pain in the last minute or so of the match, Miss Vial had inevitably won.

"It's over?" she asked with disappointment, oblivious to the loud gasp of relief from Copia as he shook out his right hand. "Shit, I could've easily played another few matches."

He widened his eyes at her words and stooped down to retrieve his hat from the carpet.

_"Ahhhhhhm...."_ he highly squeaked out, his eyes quickly searching the arcade around him in hopes that he could swiftly distract her from considering more air hockey. "Ah... _look!_ We could try that one - it looks _fun,_ no?"

"For a _psychopath,_ sure." she muttered emptily, trailing towards the shooting-based game he had directed her towards, despite her cynical reluctance to leave the air hockey table. 

Once they arrived, they entered the roofed compartment and sat side-by-side. Aemelia raised a brow and the blood-splatter and over-the-top guttural noises of generic pop-culture zombies flashed across the demo screen. Despite the disapproval in her black irises, she confidently snatched one of the machine's wired blasters, which was fashioned out of neon pink plastic and didn't really match the horror aesthetic at all. Nevertheless, she held the thick blaster at a sharp angle towards the screen so that she could close an eye and dangerously look down the sights.

Copia leaned down and pushed a few tokens into the machine, but Aemelia immediately dropped her stance when she realised he had only entered enough for one player.

"You're not playing?" she asked with the slightest hint of disappointment, knitting her eyebrows together. Cardinal rested his hat over his lap and clutched at his sore right hand, clearing his throat nervously. He was secretly glad that he had some kind of excuse to observe her in deep concentration, he liked to quietly watch her from such close proximity.

"Ah... no, no. I will give my hand a little rest. I want to watch you play though... _heh."_ he admitted with mirth-filled eyes, leaning forward to poise his hand over the start button. "Ready?"

She shuffled into position and closed her left eye again, lining up the blaster with a steady grip, _"Ready."_

He pressed the button and lounged back in his seat, his eyes trailing between her and the screen. The zombies kept popping out from nowhere but Miss Vial didn't seem very phased and lightly moved the weapon, thoughtlessly pulling the trigger every time. White flashes struck over their pale faces as she continued to blast her way through the level filled with stumbling undead - to begin with, Copia thought that her shots were extremely lucky, but then, he realised - as he dragged his attention away from how _attractive_ she looked beneath the strobe lighting - she was locking onto each zombie's head with ease before she swiftly pulled the trigger. His mouth fell open and he couldn't look away from the screen, the undead heads popping left, right and centre. After six or so minutes, she had completed the entire level and Copia was left with a silly expression of amazement over his features.

"You... never miss a _head._ Should I be _worried?"_ he whispered with concern, shaking his head in disbelief at her as he clutched his hands around the brim of his hat for comfort. She swivelled to face him with narrowed eyes as she tilted the pink blaster upwards, facing him like she was parodying the stance of action hero.

_"You_ shouldn't be worried, no." she retorted in husky monotone, the briefest twitch of a smirk on her lips. "I'm not sure that your skull would be the best place to put a bullet anyway, to be honest with you. I think _your brains_ are buried somewhere in your _crotch."_

Internally, he was fighting off laughter, but he was still quite insulted and his expression was stern and spiteful as he snatched up a small train of reward tickets that had been spewing out from a slot in the machine.

"Have to say, those zombies were a _joy_ to deal with, though." she continued with a relieved sigh, ignoring the seething sulk Copia was blatantly adorning on his face. "Far less nudity and vomit going on. Makes a pleasant change."

She furrowed her brow as he quietly slipped out of the arcade unit, clutching his hat and the fresh train of reward tickets to his chest. When she abruptly exited to follow him, he was already silently marching towards another activity, wearing a slightly miffed expression. 

_"Bloody hell, here were go..."_ she murmured in annoyance, jogging just so that she could catch up with his determined marching. It wasn't long before Miss Vial realised exactly where he was headed and her interest peaked immediately - he stopped in front of a dance machine and spun around to face her dangerously, tipping out a large wad of tokens into his palm. She slowly approached him and once she was close enough, he tossed the long train of tickets towards her for safe-keeping. 

After turning from her, he slotted in the generous amount of yellow tokens and tipped his hat up, carelessly discarding the last of their yellow tokens across the arcade's floor. Aemelia scowled at him in confusion as he turned back to gaze at her intensely, stooping into a low bow as he sharply angled his black fedora over his head. Before standing all the way back up, he reached towards her and took a firm hold of her forearm, dragging it up towards him with quite some effort from how limp she was making her arm. 

"For _good luck..."_ he explained in a quiet voice, his mismatched eyes burning into her. His irises soon softened however, when he brought the back of her hand to his lips. Aemelia huffed out and rolled her eyes at his actions as he left the briefest, smallest damp kiss over her skin. He gently released his grip on her and her arm fell back by her side, but his eyes still lingered. He stretched out his arms by his sides like he was about to cast some kind of spell and then twirled around, confidently hopping up the steps to the raised dance platform.

He smacked his hand against the start button and used a few arrow buttons below the monitor in front of him to scroll through a long catalogue of song choices. Aemelia awkwardly anticipated his performance and quickly glanced around, swallowing with anxiousness when she noticed that a few people seemed to have suddenly become a lot more aware of their presence. _Of course_ they noticed them both just as he was about to _embarrass_ himself... _or so she thought._

After two minutes of deliberation, he hummed contentedly with the song he had highlighted and slapped the start button again - already, Aemelia was wrapping the train of tickets around her forearm so that she could prepare to raise her hands to obscure the sight of him from her eyes. Her lips parted in surprise as the familiar, catchy synth-line of _Sweet Dreams_ by _Eurthymics_ pulsed out loudly from the machine's speakers.

To her mortified surprise, Copia's moves were smooth and utterly on beat as he started to follow the guidance of the brightly coloured arrows on-screen. Her hands were slowly raising up to cover her eyes, but for some reason, she found that she couldn't tear her black eyes away. There was just something _captivating_ about the way he moved - then again, perhaps she was just in shock from how well he could dance. She noticed that he was starting to make the movements even more elaborate as the song went on - he added more footwork than was really necessary and even involved the use of his arms once he was really into it. She actually lowered her hands from her face after a little while once the shock had started to fade away, and started to wear an amused expression, though she certainly couldn't find the urge to smile.

By the last bridge of the song, Aemelia reluctantly found herself nodding along to the punching beat and Copia had let go of all inhibitions, dancing like his life depended on it as he quietly mouthed the words to himself. Internally, as she watched him with mirth-filled eyes, she wondered whether the dancing was another perk he'd acquired through nefarious, _devil-related_ means... such a thought made her snort to herself and shake her head. Though Copia's dancing was fluid and undeniably impressive, she knew it was likely a talent he had _worked_ towards. 

He twirled around to face her and locked his eyes onto hers, which caused her eyebrows to raise. The gestures of his arms and gloved-fingers instantly evolved into gestures that were far more _suggestive_ now that he was facing her - and his hips smoothly gyrated towards her in ways she didn't think possible for a man of his age... or _profession,_ she supposed.

Needless to say, Aemelia was completely stunned by his performance and she was quite disappointed when the end of the song finally arrived and he elegantly twirled to a halt, taking his bows at either side of the small dance platform. He wasn't out of breath like she had anticipated, but perspiration had started to form over his brow and moustache - but still, it was like he hadn't expunged any energy whatsoever. She bit into her smirk and resisted the urge to applaud him, observing him with intrigue as he spun around to take a look at the statistics that flashed up over the monitor. 

_"Eh!_ Look, Miss Vial! An all-time _high-score,_ ah!" he proclaimed excitedly and hurriedly, pointing at the screen in case she didn't believe him. "Forty-four- _thousand_ points... _whatever that means..._ but look! _Top_ of the leader-board!" 

He shot a proud smile across his shoulder at her and she nodded in response, feeling like she was in the presence of a _small child_ instead of an _allegedly_ mature satanic cardinal. He quickly snapped his attention back to the screen and used the arrow buttons to enter three initials to mark his place on the leader-board - but he was too eager, and after entering "C-O", his finger slipped and instead of locking in the "P" as he had wished, a "K" had ended up in its place. 

Aemelia cackled out brashly as she realised the error he had made and he desperately prodded at one of the arrow buttons with his fingertips, hoping that he could amend it - but he couldn't. His arcade legacy was forever set in stone, as the mysetrious "C-O-K" at the top of the dance machine leader-board. 

* * *

Time had flown a lot quicker than they had realised, because they didn't arrive back at the Ministry until sometime after _midnight_ \- at least they were sharply on time to experience the abrupt end of Summer Heat, much to Miss Vial's relief. They were high spirited as they skulked about the empty corridors, pleasantly content with one another's company and the lack of gratified moans.

Copia had insisted on walking her back to her attic room and she had reluctantly agreed - she just really hoped that he hadn't assumed them _hanging out_ was anything more than that. After quiet banter about the events at the arcade, they had soon reached their destination and Aemelia cleared her throat, awkwardly stepping towards her attic door with quite a bit of hesitation. She pressed her back against the wood as she turned to face him.

"Well... this is me done for the night, I think." she began, pushing a few stray strands of hair out of her face with her hands. She gazed at him expectantly, awaiting his polite goodnight, but it never came. He removed his hat and held it flat to his chest, taking a few steps closer as he sighed out shyly. 

_"Okay, okay..."_ he murmured beneath his breath, but she knew his words were intended more for him than her. His gaze lifted from the floor to settle on her face and he let out an even deeper sigh, his glove tightening its hold around his fedora.  
  
"Aemelia," he commenced bashfully, licking his lips nervously when he heard the faint clacking of shoes from somewhere far down the corridor. "I... _ahm..._ I want to say how much I... _appreciate_ this little adventure we've had tonight."

"Go on, then." she encouraged playfully, unable to take his politeness seriously whatsoever.

"I appreciate it." he said sincerely with a small smile, bowing his head ever so slightly. "I really, _really_ do. Even though I am quite drenched with sweat from all the dancing, heh. I will have to have this outfit _dry cleaned."_

She snorted in amusement and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Hey! You _laugh,_ but you should see how much that shit _costs!"_

"Well, you'll have to find your _wallet_ first, won't you?" she quipped knowingly, raising a brow confidently. He looked at her like she had spoken an alien language in attempt to try and seem unaware.

_"W-What?"_

"I don't know what you _did_ to get those coins. But I know it can't have been anything _good."_ she said simply, her expression unreadable. "The _ridiculous lengths_ you go to - "

_"Impress you?!"_ he blurted out, quickly widening his eyes as he swallowed to suppress the words he very much wanted to admit.

"Money doesn't impress me, you know that by now, Cardinal. I could've easily gotten us the tokens we needed - "

_"No no no!_ Absolutely not, Aemelia. You do too much already." he argued softly, shaking a glove in dismissal of her statement before he smoothed back his hair.

"And you _don't?"_

"This was... a _welcome_ break, I must admit." he chuckled out, the skin around his eyes crinkling in adoration and amusement. "You wouldn't happen to... _ah..._ be free to do this again next... _Saturday,_ would you?"


	12. Copia's Responsibilities

After that first day of awkward avoidance, the routines of Copia and Vial shifted through the days of summer, each one blossoming into something more relaxed and positive. Their routine started off normal: the two were slaves to their duties until late afternoon, when the two of them would abandon their workplaces, each of them tucking a book - or _journal_ \- of their preference beneath an arm. They both looked like they were about to attend some kind of _important meeting,_ and the scores of passing Clergy members often assumed so. They would both file into the bustling hallways filled with masses of devout Siblings, their destination a pleasant goal in their minds. 

Vial would always feel a sense of urgency to escape the droves of people around her, and politely stepped out of the flow in order to swerve around them with ease. Copia would have loved to have had the speed on his side, but many Siblings kept siding up to him, bombarding him with obtuse theoretical questions or hushed praises - both of which he was flattered to receive, but the timing wasn't exactly _convenient_ for him. The interactions always ended the same, with him apologetically waving his hands at the robed worshippers, politely reminding them of his office hours - unless of course, it was an _emergency_ \- which always prompted them to shuffle out of his way. He wouldn't say a word as he shot away from them, acting like he was extremely late as he dashed through the nonchalant sea of Siblings - most assumed he was late for yet another duty he had probably forgotten about... but of course, they had no idea just how wrong they were.

Neither of them ever agreed upon a time, nor did they ever speak a word about meeting, in fact. Yet both of them treated it like any other ritualistic part of their working week, miraculously turning up at the Ministry gardens at no particular time in the late afternoon.

The first to arrive differed from day to day - sometimes it was Copia. He would be sat patiently on the bench-swing in his modified-summer outfit, the smart black sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows, neatly matched to his slim suit-trousers that had also been turned up at the ends to allow for more draft. His modest black winklepickers would look a little ridiculous as he crossed his ankles over, but the full picture of him actually seemed quite contemplative despite the slight silliness of how he'd adapted his usual fashion to suit the humid weather. Silver-framed reading spectacles would clutch across the width of his face, his eyes intently focused on peering through the glass, scanning the words on the pages of a thick novel he would have balanced in his gloved-hands. His mind would never quite settle on the meanings of the words - he was looking forward to seeing the alchemist too much, but he insisted on quieting his mind.

Other times, the first to arrive was Miss Vial. She would be sat waiting with an expression of deep concentration over her features, scribbling down unprompted thoughts onto the parchment inside her journal. She too, would have her shirt-sleeves rolled, and her broody matching waistcoat and tie loosened in an effort to feel a little cooler. Unusually, she would never feel the need to light up a cigarette, as the pleasant, person-less surroundings were temporarily enough to settle her body and mind. She would peer through the smoky black lenses of her circular sunglasses, pausing her nib-scratches to silently read her own words back to her, discreetly hoping that Copia would arrive to distract her from the burdens of her own consciousness.

On a particular Wednesday afternoon, however, they had awkwardly caught up with one another before either of them had arrived at the usual bench-swing. The cardinal - who was unusually adorning his wide-brim fedora and newly tailored white tailcoat which loosely draped over his shoulders - hugged to the left side of the Ministry's marble-clad walls, the alchemist opting to cling to the right. Their actions allowed a lively channel of chattering Siblings to fluidly pass between them, oblivious to the existence of their superior, who was - _to his relief_ \- easily missed.

As the same destination lingered in their minds, Copia's irises flickered as he eyed Aemelia through the consistent trickle of heads and shoulders, finding himself feeling strangely _apprehensive_ \- he wasn't sure why, after all, what difference did it make if they arrived at the garden at the _same time?_ It wasn't _routine,_ that's why. He liked patiently expecting her, and it comforted him to know that she did the same for him. 

As the hallways seemed to get busier, the two of them stuck to their paths, clinging to the outer walls - for once they were thankful for the elaborate, wide corridors of the newer complex, they could keep to themselves and allow the huddles of modestly-dressed bodies to pass without having to interact at all.

It wasn't long before the open doorway to the Ministry courtyard and gardens appeared to the right of the corridor ahead, both sets of eyes eagerly fixed on the destination. Despite the twinge of nervousness he felt in the pit of his stomach, Copia side-stepped into the swarms of Siblings, cutting through them with murmured apologies, his arms desperately clutching a couple of books he had trapped in place against his sides. His actions earned eye-rolls and chuckles of amusement and he gritted his teeth, side-stepping his way towards Miss Vial with much more vigour.

He almost flung himself into the side of her when he arrived in a narrow gap next to her, the rushed stream of Siblings inadvertently pushing by his shoulder. He tensed his elbows against the hard-back covers of the novels he held and dipped his head slightly to the right, tucking himself in tightly so that the bustling human-traffic would cease to pummel him. 

He shuffled closer to Aemelia as much as he could, synchronising with the pace of her strides. He observed her intently for a few seconds before he brought the tip of his elbow down slightly, gently nudging it against her side. His subtle action didn't appear to grab her attention as he wished, so he tilted his head down, angling his head to stare at her, his glinting eyes basking in the shadow of his fedora's brim. The corners of his mouth twitched when he noticed the familiar gleam of her black irises as she spied him in her peripheral vision. He cleared his throat quietly and awkwardly, his eyes shortly raising to assess how far away their destination was, though he was quick to settle them back onto her. 

"Whereabouts are you heading, Miss Vial?" he suddenly asked in a surprisingly husky voice that was laced with amusement. His question reeked of _small talk_ to the bustle of passing worshippers, but to her, it was a blatant, suggestive _tease._

"The gardens - for fresh air. It still gets awful hot in this place." she replied simply, easily playing along with the strange exchange which caused him to softly bite his bottom lip - it seemed it was his way of refraining from snorting with amusement. "Whereabouts are _you_ heading, Cardinal?"

"Why... the _exact_ place _you_ are." he replied in a whisper, lowering his head as he did so. She visibly tensed as his hot breath lingered beside her left ear - it was clear that she wasn't sure what to make of his actions but she carried on her movements despite wanting to freeze and glare at him. 

"I do... enjoy our little talks out there, you know?" he added in a hushed, honest tone of voice, keeping his mouth close to her ear as the doorway to the gardens loomed ahead of them. "You are quite a fascinating woman without all the work in the way."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" she quipped curtly, her black eyes hardening as she took her attention away from him to focus on the fast approaching open doorway. 

_"Ehh..._ I meant that... you are a lot more _relaxed,_ nothing seems to pressure you. No fucking ugly _monsters_ to worry about, no remedies to be made, no Sister Imperator breathing down your neck - "

"Yeah, but _you_ still are." she retorted firmly as she smoothly stepped to her right, swivelling around to pass through the doorway to the gardens. A low chuckle rumbled out of him as he closely followed her, tightly clutching the books to his sides. 

The stark light of day was overwhelming as they made their way across the well-kept grassland of the courtyard. Miss Vial led the way and Copia quietly tailed behind, glancing across at a few worshippers who were lounging together over the cool, comforting sprigs of grass. 

After cutting diagonally across the mid-section of the yard, they had almost reached the gated entrance to their usual meeting place when a small group of Siblings excitedly - and _loudly_ \- greeted Copia from afar. His shoulders tensed and he wore a look of alarm, feeling heads and eyes drawn to him from all sorts of directions. Although the attention made him feel uncomfortable, he peered over his shoulder and gave them a small wave that thankfully prompted them to quiet down.

He breathed out with relief when they finally passed through the gated archway and into the thriving Ministry gardens. Vivid tones of rich nepeta and pale umber collaged the framed ceiling which was covered in extravagant twists of roots and leaves. Miss Vial slowed slightly once they had meandered further into the gardens, allowing herself to move adjacent to him - after all, there was hardly a rush if they were already in each other's company.

"New jacket?" she suddenly asked, her eyebrows knitting in intrigue as she glanced towards the jacket shrugged over his shoulders.

_"Ah..._ yes.." he responded highly with a small proud smile, humbly staring down at the ground in front of him. "The whole suit arrived earlier today. Such a shame it is still so hot or I would've worn the whole outfit, you know? I ... _ahhmm..._ I just wanted to wear this damn _fine_ suit jacket, ok?"

Her cheeks fought against her mouth as she resisted the urge to smile, but the smile won in the end and she shook her head at him.

"You don't need to explain yourself to me, Cardinal." she reassured sincerely, her black eyes trailing towards their usual meeting place, which was now only a couple of yards away from them. He glanced at her without lifting his head and nodded, wearing a silly smile as they soon took their places on the bench-swing. He let out a deep sigh of relief as he bundled up the couple of novels he'd been carrying and slid them onto a bit of free space on the seat beside him, quickly smoothing down the sleeves of his newly tailored jacket. She sat down comfortably and placed her journal over her lap, unhooking her rounded sun-glasses from the collar of her shirt to slide them into place over her nose. 

"You never realise how loud it is in there until you sit out here..." Aemelia stated calmly, her eyes admiring the tall, arched ceiling of the plant-ridden frame above them. Cardinal ceased to scrutinise his jacket and he shuffled to settle more comfortably, turning towards her slightly.

"Yes... it is loud, stuffy... _ehh..._ and kind of _hellish,_ wouldn't you say?" he poked mischievously with a crooked smirk. _"Heh..._ I am only kidding with you, Aemelia. I know how you feel, and I welcome this time and space here very much. I have come to know the feeling of the Ministry all too well - it is the overwhelming feeling of expectation and... responsibility, _sadly."_

"You'd rather not have that? Responsibility?" she inquired, still too focused on studying the growth of leaves above them to notice that his head had lifted to gaze at her with blatant adoration. The emotion lurked there a while as his words formulated in his mind, before he tipped his head downwards and slid his gloves beneath the hanging material of his white jacket.

"I did not say that, Aemelia." he finally replied softly, fumbling around with something frantically before he sighed in defeat, resting his hands over his lap. "Responsibilities are... _ahhh..._ fickle. Sure, as a cardinal I have a duty of care, but there is no enjoyment for me there, you know? If I could cut that bit out, it would be far much _easier_ for me. What I mean to say is... sometimes the shitty stuff has to exist for the existence of good stuff later. But it is easy for us to blind ourselves with so much of an inadequate routine. We are blind as we do the same chores weekly, in the same environment, with the same tools and the same complaints. It blinds us so much that we do not see the glorious reward at the end, that is worth every _second_ of the suspense that came before..."

She stayed quiet as he hesitated, in awe of his unprompted philosophical speech. She wondered where his passionate words had come from but she waited patiently, centering her head to slowly gaze at him.

"And we focus too much on the negative aspects of responsibilities as a species... well, _I_ do." he continued quietly, lifting a gloved hand into the inside of his white jacket again. "Not _all_ responsibilities are so bad, after all..."

A sudden blur of movement caused her to stiffen, her back straight as something leapt from the inside of Cardinal's tailcoat. The motion of scurrying soon slowed and Miss Vial finally realised the existence of a slender, silvery rat that boldly clung to the buttons of Copia's smart black shirt. She furrowed her brows in confusion, but her eyes melted behind the black lenses of her shades as she was rendered speechless. The rodent's pink paws playfully reached towards the next highest button and its body elongated out in a brave attempt to succeed. Copia chuckled, bringing a glove towards its head to administer welcomed tickles behind its flush ears.

He could feel the intensity of Miss Vial's black irises upon him, and his eyes tore away from the snuffling rat to return her stare. He could just about make out her curious eyes through the smoky lenses and he let out a subdued chuckle, his head dipping down when the lively rodent abandoned its attempt to button-climb its way up to him. Miss Vial had never seen him smile so much in such a short space of time - he still had one on his face as the rat strutted its way downwards to settle over the free space of his lap, its body relaxing into a furry puddle over him, its pale pink tail drooping calmly over the side of his thigh. It let out a tremendous yawn and tucked its paws in beneath its fur, squinting as it started to feel incredibly comfortable.

Copia couldn't resist the relaxed sight of the rodent and stroked the backs of his leather-clad fingers down the length of its body and it only seemed to soothe it further, the puddle shape of the rat spreading out wider. The reflection of his rat friend was displayed across the black lenses of Aemelia's shades as he peered his enthusiastic, mismatched eyes towards her again. 

"She is named Urethra." he explained gladly, continuing to stroke his pet proudly as it sank further and further into the crook of his lap, its shiny black eyes fighting to stay open.

"She's named... _what?"_ Aemelia asked in amusement as a little breathy chuckle escaped her. She angled her head down to study the comfortable rat but Copia ensured that he kept his gaze upon her, desperate to witness every bit of her reaction.

"I know... I know what you are thinking, but... I do not feel that _Penelope_ would have been suffice for her - it is too... _cliché."_ he told her passionately, his fingers slowing down to lightly massage the rat's back in a soft pincer movement. "Each of my creatures deserve to be named with _purpose._ They are a _necessity_ to me, so it is only right they are named after pieces of human anatomy, you know?"

Aemelia was glad that her shades blocked the sight of her quizzical eyes, because as much as she was utterly confused by what he was admitting - even _more_ confused how he had managed to keep his love for rats away from her for so long - she honestly did feel that the sight of him lovingly massaging his pet rat was somewhat heartwarming.

"They're your treasured responsibilities, aren't they?" she asked with a knowing smirk and he quietly nodded in reply.

"Oh, yes. Every one of them. Urethra, Pectoral, Sphincter, Achilles, Kneecap, Labia and how could I ever forget, _Ass-Tits -_ "

"Where do you keep them all? Surely they're not lurking under all of that paperwork in your office?" she questioned with fascination, her voice wavering from how pleasantly amused she was.

"Oh _no no no,_ of course not, Miss Vial. My collection is ever-growing so I couldn't possibly keep them in there, _heh._ They have free run of my living quarters - _ehh... and the entire Ministry_ \- during the day, there's little _rat-runs_ from room to room... but I have trained them to return to their enclosure at night. Fucking _cats,_ you know?"

She nodded in understanding and she cautiously reached over, her right hand brushing the side of his glove when she smoothed back a thin patch of Urethra's soft, shimmering fur. He carefully took his hand away so that Aemelia could stroke the rat more if she wished, and he smirked at her, his mind suddenly realising the surreal reality of them sitting there.

"Well, Miss Vial... I never thought it would ever come to _this..."_ he said with a trembling voice like he was only just holding back giggles, his eyes giving away the innuendo poised over his tongue. "Here we both are, _alone,_ and you're happily stroking my Urethra."

She snorted but held in the laughter. He chuckled out blatantly, tipping his head back as he pinched the bridge of his nose. His amusement was infectious and she shook her head at him, trying to resist the urge to join his chuckles.

"Shut up." she managed to gasp out in a rasp, inhaling deeply to try and stop herself from laughing out loud. He knew she didn't really want him to be quiet and he centred his head, shooting her a playful wink.

"Ahh... _c'maan,_ Aemelia. Let it out, ah? It is just you and me here." he insisted, adjusting his fedora so that it was angled much more sharply over his eyes - strangely, his action seemed to rocket his charm and confidence. "At least you know why I am so secretive with my rodents now, hm? I cannot go showing Urethra to any old person in the Ministry, can I? They would think me odd, no?"

"I'm pretty sure they already find you strange, Cardinal... so it wouldn't be much of a surprise to anybody." she admitted, raising her brow at him as he wore an feigned pout like he was offended. "But... if it reassures you... Urethra is lovely. And I'm glad your rats are a responsibility you cherish."

He dropped his false displeasure entirely and smiled broadly at her, nodding his head eagerly in response.

"Sadly, they are sometimes the only thing I wish to be responsible for... they do not compare to the pointless papers I have to sign... or those shitty _sermons_ I'm expected to do on a Tuesday night - ah _shit._ I have another one of those to prepare for next week... "

He trailed off and deeply sighed with exasperation, shielding his eyes with one of his gloves before he glanced towards Urethra, who was fast asleep over his lap with Aemelia's black fingernails gently rubbing the fur between her ears.

_"... ah, that reminds me..."_ he murmured warily, his hand still shading his eyes from Miss Vial. "I... do not usually bring this kinda shit up, Aemelia, but... _ehhh... fuck it."_

Aemelia continued petting the rat on his lap but raised her gaze towards him, her eyebrows furrowing in concern. She braced herself slightly, like she could sense his slight reluctance to carry on.

"A few of the sisters around the Ministry believe that I... ahm... _hooked up_ with them on the evening of Summer Heat." he proceeded to admit with a sigh. "Since then, at least one of them has paid a visit to my office every few days and - _ahm..._ well, it is becoming a tiresome charade, you know? But they _insist_ it happened! I do not know why they wish to tease me with it... maybe in hopes of _blackmailing_ me? I do not know."

"Well whoever they fucked - it certainly wasn't you. We were out until... what? _Midnight?"_ Aemelia reasoned, carefully leaning back towards the swing to leave Urethra to her slumber.

_"Exactly,_ Miss Vial!" he exclaimed, concern straining in his voice. "That is what I told them... I was not even _here_ \- but _no._ They were not having _any_ of it. _Lucifer knows_ why they thought it was _me_ they were fucking."

He continued to chatter away with worry like Miss Vial was his _therapist_ rather than a friend and colleague, but she listened to his venting regardless, nodding her head and reassuring him whenever he inhaled a shuddered breath. She knew that the minor inconvenience of sisters taunting him only added to the pressure of his mounting duties as a cardinal and the stern, watchful stare of his superiors, Papa Nihil and Sister Imperator. And of course, their last investigation still weighed heavily on both their minds - Aemelia knew how mentally traumatic everything had been for her, so she couldn't imagine how stressful things were for him...

As he continued to allow his various confessions of struggles and fears to escape him in a hushed series of mutters, unbeknownst to both Cardinal and Miss Vial, a short, slender figure - _no taller than six inches_ \- smoothly rounded the curved corner of neatly trimmed leaves and hedging to their left, heading from the outer-expanse of the gardens to trek the straight of the arched trellis. The bare skin of its feet rustled and thumped over the swaying blades of grass - each strip of grass seemed to conceal the details of the small figure quite well from afar. Bright crimson glared over its head to cast shade over it, shielding it from the rays of sun - it was almost like it had hold of some kind of _parasol._ Despite the trundling movement of a bright red flash from the strange curved cup - which was _obvious_ amongst the green of the vegetation - it remained unnoticed by the cardinal and the alchemist as they were too engaged in conversation. 

As the small thing grew closer, it was Copia that first caught a glimpse of the bright red amongst the grass. Despite being half way through a sentence, he carefully shuffled closer to Aemelia, careful he didn't wake the sleeping rat sinking into the small rut between his thighs. His words caught in his throat as he briefly flicked his eyes from the approach of the miniature figure to settle on her.

She frowned at the close proximity of his actions, and it deepened as she spied the swaggering movement of the approaching flash of crimson over his shoulder. She couldn't decide what on Earth she was seeing - she couldn't make head nor tail of it. At first she thought it was a rounded flower-head... but Copia suddenly darted towards her, obscuring the strange thing from view before she could study any more. His hands grappled around each of her arms as he stared at her closely - he had meant to forbid her from standing to acknowledge the figure that approached them, but now all he could think about was how tempting her mouth looked.

"A-Aemelia..." he stuttered out nervously when his grip around her arms tightened, his brows knitting together as his eyes trailed down to consider her lips. "There... _ahm..._ there is something I must tell you - "

Before Copia could continue, the heavy thumps of the small figure's feet had grown in volume, causing his eyes to widen into saucers. Much to Copia's dismay, his attempts at hiding the creature from her had all been in vain - a disgusted expression of shock swept across her features, her black eyes narrowing as she peeked over his left shoulder. Copia sighed in uncomfortable defeat and released his hold on her, slowly slumping back over the seat which caused Urethra to tiredly crack open her eyes.

The disgust and shock of Miss Vial, however, was not entirely for what Copia had assumed. For she had realised that the curved red of the little creature's parasol - that swayed side-to-side with some degree of blatant attitude - was in fact, one of her own laced bra-cups that had been crudely fashioned onto a couple of chopsticks that had been lashed together with a wad of elastic bands, thus, creating a miniature sun-shade. The small figure soon came to a stop before them, the crude parasol still obscuring most of its features. 

Copia reluctantly gave the small creature his attention, but he clenched his jaw, and wore a guilty look of alarm, like he had been caught out on something prohibited. 

Considering that Aemelia was quite well read and understanding in terms of supernatural beings, it was strange that even she was shocked by the existence of the little gremlin-like being that stood before them, shading itself from the heat of the sun. It was a toned, slender thing with pale grey skin and thin, spindly fingers. It was completely naked aside from a napkin it had knotted around its middle to ensure it kept its dignity.

As Miss Vial studied in blatant fascination, the little thing brought up a hand to tilt his make-shift parasol back, revealing a wide, oval head with gaunt features. A sharp, coned mo-hawk stuck up over the centre of his head, the bleached-white colour matching fairly nicely with its complexion. To Miss Vial's horror, she noticed each of its eyes - which were deeply set and shrimp-like - were of a different colour - the right eye was a royal navy, whereas the left was a fascinating and _familiar_ opal. The rest of its features only made her eyes widen further, when she noticed the subtle fluff above its thin strip of a mouth and lightly feathered over the middle of its cheeks. 

Miss Vial wasn't stupid - she knew who the small gremlin stood before her reminded her of... and it certainly wasn't just _Billy Idol_ or _Stripe_ from _Gremlins._ She didn't fathom its existence any longer and merely accepted it, her shock settling down slightly as she sat up straight and stared at the small familiar before her.

It took a few steps until it was half a yard away from Miss Vial and it lowered itself before her in an uncanny bow, one of its skinny arms dropping to politely gesture out elaborately. Actions, mannerisms and certain features were all starting to become heavily reminiscent of the man sat beside her - who was suddenly starting to break into a nervous sweat.

"Ohoh... _enchanted_ to meet you, Miss Vial." it spoke zealously, the voice and accent practically _identical_ to that of Copia, but she could hear that it was heightened slightly like it was adjusted to account for the creature's size. "If this were a holy place, I would say you are looking beautiful today. _Eheh_ , a blatant _understatement._ So, as this is an _unholy_ place, I want to let you know that... you look so _fuckable,_ your eyes burn right through me like the sixth circle of Hell... your butt cheeks I can only _imagine_ are so... so _smooth_ and _squishy,_ and _oh..._ your _tit - "_

Copia abruptly stamped his foot which made the earth beneath his winkle-pickers vibrate in a violent shudder, the pale imp jumping with surprise. He frowned down at the little creature and shook his head in annoyance, though his cheeks had started to flush a faint pink.

_"Hey, hey!"_ the creature yelped out angrily, shaking a little fist towards Cardinal. "There is no need for _earthquakes,_ ok? I was not violent to _you,_ was I?"

Copia briefly glanced towards Aemelia and her eyes were searing at him intensely. She needed him to explain the existence of an imp that had far too many of Copia's own qualities to be a coincidence. From the slight waver in his eyes, she knew he was hiding something from her.

_"Explain."_ she demanded curtly, narrowing her eyes and tensing her jaw in expectation of hearing something she really didn't approve of.

_"Ehhhh... "_

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vial." the imp suddenly interrupted with an eager giggle, leaning down slightly to leave a little kiss on the tip of one of her polished shoes. "I, am _Konekid,_ born from the seed of Cardinal C - "

_"Ah!_ No, _no!_ Shoo! This little imp is _very_ confused! _Heh ehhh..."_ Cardinal interrupted hurriedly, bending forwards to wave the creature away, his gloves frantically pushing away from him. Urethra woke abruptly due to his actions, wearing a rather dark expression and slowly scrambled across Copia's middle, hopping into the darkness of his loose suit jacket.

"He _is,_ is he?" Aemelia quipped, crossing her arms over her chest as she shook her head in disapproval. "Because he doesn't seem that _confused_ to me. Don't try to fool me, Copia. He just so _happens_ to talk like _you_ , walk like _you..._ I mean, _c'mon._ The fucking _moustache and side-burns?!"_

"A complete coincidence." Copia persisted to quickly deny, surrendering his attempt of chasing the little imp away by leaning back in his seat with a sigh.

"Fuckin' _unbelievable."_ she muttered bitterly, shaking her head in disbelief of how he was suddenly ignoring the dilemma right in front of them. "What's your name again, little man?"

_"Konekid,_ Miss Vial." he announced proudly, his small jaw broadening out with a set of jagged teeth as he shot her a mischievous grin. She studied Konekid with interest, furrowing her brow in wonder as one of his little hands picked at one of the knots holding his napkin in place.

_"Nekid,_ for short... and _Nekid_ by nature." he continued gleefully, his hand pulling the napkin free of his body, revealing his bare form to her. He tittered to himself and slowly twirled on the spot, balancing the handle of his make-shift parasol over the heel of his palm. She blinked in emotionless astonishment, neither disgusted or amused, even when Nekid proceeded to shake his naked body to-and-fro, enjoying the freedom of his body. She sighed and knitted her eyebrows in concern, observing him dancing about carelessly with a salvaged bit of her lingerie.

"He was born out of your subconscious, wasn't he?" she realised, shifting her eyes from Nekid to settle them on Copia who was sat stiffly beside her, his alert eyes locked onto the mischievous familiar in front of them.

_"Ahm... perhaps."_ Copia replied highly, raising a glove up to his face to wipe away a thin trickle of apprehensive sweat. "One minute I... _eh..._ was _occupied... busy_ , you know. The next... _he_ appears out of thin air!"

"That's why you always wear protection, _eheh!"_ Nekid chuckled out, pausing his energetic dance moves to wiggle his small pinky like a worm, his round, shining eyes narrowing with the knowledge of truth that Copia was failing to speak.

"What were you doing when you conjured him?" Aemelia suddenly asked in a sincere tone, her dark eyes piercing into him as he averted his eyes to glare at the ground. He swallowed loudly and he blushed furiously, unable to push out the words he wanted to say.

"He was jiggling his _Spunk Trumpet."_ Nekid replied easily with a closed smile, stepping into another series of elegant twirls before he could witness her reaction. She sighed deeply, her disappointed yet intrigued eyes on his movements as she heard Copia sharply inhale.

It was then, that she realised her assumption had been correct. Nekid _must_ have been a product of Copia's subconscious - just observing him, he didn't seem to have any inhibitions whatsoever. His behaviour was obscene and free, impulsive and honest, both positive and negative - the complete _framework_ that could have made up Copia's subconscious, though of course, she could never ever know for certain. 

The two of them sat in an awkward silence for at least ten minutes. Nekid never seemed to burn out of energy at all and if he wasn't dancing, he was lying over the grass and giggling to himself or doing press-ups in the hopes that he would attract Miss Vial's attention - much to his disappointment, her attention was _always_ elsewhere. Before long, Nekid seemed to grow bored of the lack of attention on him and blew a fizzing raspberry at them, wearing a great sulk as he snatched up his parasol. They frowned at him as he swivelled around, slapping his free hand against one of his buttocks as he quickly padded in the direction he had arrived, the red parasol bobbing up and down in a violent motion as his tiny legs gained speed.

"Is... that a _bra-cup?"_ Copia suddenly asked quietly with a small frown, his voice hoarse due to the long silence that had come before. "It is... quite beautiful, I have not seen a pattern like it before."

"No. I don't think it is." Aemelia hurriedly lied, her obsidian eyes glaring at the fading sight of Nekid's departure as she began to blush profusely. "But I think we may have just found the source of your _sister problem..."_


End file.
